Last-Second Tip-In Lifts Eagles to 54-52 Victory

Wednesday, January 3

Bowling Green, OH

7:00 PM ET

Bowling Green State University

8-5, 0-2MAC

Eastern Michigan

5-8, 1-1MAC

Eastern Michigan

Bowling Green

Caterrion Thompson - Jan 3 2018 v EMU - Larry Clapper photo

Caterrion Thompson led BG with 18 points, going 5-of-7 from long range (Larry Clapper photo)

Photo by: Larry Clapper

January 03, 2018 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

EMU answers Puk's game-tying three-pointer to escape the Stroh with a win

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Emoni Jackson's bucket with just 0.4 seconds left lifted Eastern Michigan University to a 54-52 win over the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team Wednesday night (Jan. 3). The Mid-American Conference matchup was held at the Stroh Center.

Jackson's putback lifted the Eagles (5-8, 1-1 MAC) to victory after BGSU senior Haley Puk had tied the game. Puk hit a long three-point field goal with 27.5 seconds to go, but Jackson's winner capped a frenzied sequence which saw the Eagles throw three shots at the hoop from close range over the final few seconds.

Sophomore Caterrion Thompson led the Falcons (8-5, 0-2 MAC) with 18 points, while junior Carly Santoro had a double-double, with 12 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. Sophomore Andrea Cecil rounded out BG's double-figure scorers with 11 points.

For the Eagles, Danielle Minott had a game-high 19 points, while Sasha Dailey added 15.

LINKS
BGSU-EMU STATISTICS: PDF
POSTGAME AUDIO: C.Thompson | Roos
POSTGAME VIDEO: C. Thompson | Roos | Highlights
PHOTO GALLERY: Photos by Larry Clapper

BGSU-EMU HIGHLIGHTS

C.THOMPSON POSTGAME INTERVIEW

COACH ROOS POSTGAME INTERVIEW

QUOTING COACH ROOS
"At the end of the day, welcome to MAC play. That's what playing in this conference is like. On any given night, you're going to get someone's best shot, you're going to see anything and everything, and you've got to expect the unexpected."

"Haley (Puk) hit that big shot and the crowd erupted; they were great. I wanted to let the game play out, rather than call a timeout and let them set something up offensively. Rebounding has been a big emphasis for us, and we got the initial stop, then another stop. If we get one defensive rebound there, it's a different game. We led for much of the game at Western Michigan (on Saturday), and we led for much of the game tonight. It makes the result harder to swallow than a lot of other games."

FIRST-QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

The Eagles took an early 6-1 lead, capped by Danielle Minott's steal and layup. That prompted the Falcons to use a timeout with 7:24 left in the quarter.
BG battled back, hitting layups on the next three possessions. Sophomore Caterrion Thompson got a tough, contested driving shot to drop for the third of those buckets, then hit a transition three-pointer for a 10-8 Falcon lead.
The Eagles responded with four-straight points, but sophomore Andrea Cecil's triple began a 12-2 run to end the period. Junior Carly Santoro and Caterrion Thompson also hit treys during that run.

SECOND-QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

The Falcons allowed the Eagles to make just one field goal during the entire second quarter, but Eastern outscored BG, 10-9, in the quarter, thanks to seven free throws.
Believe it or not, the BG defense held EMU without a bucket for a span of 12:26. After hitting a layup with 2:47 left in the opening quarter, the Eagles did not connect again until just 21 seconds remained in the half.
Eastern went 0-for-13 from the floor with eight turnovers during that 12-plus minute span.
Meanwhile, after ending the first quarter on that 12-2 run, the Falcons scored the first five points of the second period. Cecil fed Caterrion Thompson for a trey, then hit a layup for a 27-14 BG lead.
After Cecil's bucket, however, the Falcons made just one more field goal during the final seven-plus minutes of the half. A layup by senior Haley Puk gave BG a 29-19 lead with 5:02 left in the period, and then neither team scored a point until a pair of Santoro free throws with 39 seconds to go.
But, Minott's three-pointer was followed by a steal by Courtnie Lewis. She was fouled and hit two free throws with four seconds left in the half, capping a quick 5-0 run that cut BG's lead to seven points, 31-24, at the break.

THIRD-QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

Neither team scored in the second half until redshirt freshman Clare Glowniak split a pair of charity tosses nearly three seconds in. The Eagles chipped away at BG's lead, getting within two points on a Sasha Dailey three-pointer at the 4:16 mark, then taking the lead on Minott's second triple in a 62-second span. A Dailey jumper capped an 8-0 run for the visitors.
Santoro, however, hit back-to-back layups, drawing a foul as she made the second one and hitting the ensuing free throw for a 41-39 lead with 1:30 to go.
Cecil drove and kicked the ball to Caterrion Thompson, who drained a buzzer-beating three-point try from in front of the BG bench for a 44-40 Falcon lead after 30 minutes.

FOURTH-QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

EMU hit three free throws in the first minute of the quarter, but Caterrion Thompson knocked down yet another triple try for a 47-43 advantage with 8:13 to go.
Autumn Hudson responded with a layup, and after nearly two-and-a-half minutes of scoreless ball, a Lewis layup tied the score. Dailey's bucket at the 4:30 mark gave the Eagles a 49-47 lead.
The teams traded free throws before another Dailey layup made it a 52-49 game with 2:03 left.
Neither team would score for over 90 seconds. But, after a Cecil layup would not drop, the sophomore rebounded her own miss and whipped the ball out to Puk for a long three-pointer from the left wing. Puk's shot found nothing but the bottom of the net, tying the score with 27.5 seconds to go.
EMU, however, answered in the dying seconds of the contest. Minott's shot did not drop, and Lewis got the rebound, but saw her layup try bounce around and off of the rim. Jackson, however, pushed the ball back toward the hoop, and her shot was good with just 0.4 seconds to go.
BGSU called a timeout to advance the ball to midcourt, but Cecil, harassed by a defender, was unable to get a turnaround shot off from in front of the BG bench as the horn sounded.

FINAL STATISTICS

Danielle Minott, as mentioned, led all players with 19 points, including a 7-of-8 effort from the free-throw line. Sasha Dailey added 15 points while Courtnie Lewis had eight. All three players had three steals, as the Eagles had 14 thefts as a team.
Caterrion Thompson had 18 points, just one shy of her career high, while Carly Santoro had 12 points and a game-high 13 boards. Santoro also led BG with three steals.
Andrea Cecil had 11 points, and added six rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots.
Junior Sydney Lambert led all players with five assists on Wednesday night.
BG shot 32.1 percent from the field for the game, just slightly better than EMU's 31.5% rate. The Falcons were 8-of-20 (40%) from three-point range, led by Thompson's 5-for-7 long-distance effort. EMU went 4-for-13 from the arc, with Dailey and Minott each hitting two triples.
The Eagles were 16-of-22 from the line, while the Falcons went 15-for-20.
BGSU held a 41-34 rebounding advantage, but Eastern had an 11-3 advantage in second-chance points.
Eastern forced BGSU into 25 turnovers, while the Eagles turned the ball over 17 times. But, BG had a 20-14 lead in points off turnovers.
The Falcons, led by Caterrion Thompson, had a 21-2 lead in bench scoring.

UP NEXT

The Falcons conclude a brief two-game homestand on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 6), taking on Ball State in a 2:00 p.m. start at the Stroh Center.
Then, BG hits the road for the following two games, facing Central Michigan (Jan. 10) and Akron (Jan. 13). The Akron game is the second half of a doubleheader which also sees the BGSU men's basketball team take on the Zips.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS

For more information on all things BGSU women's basketball, follow the Falcons on Twitter (@BGAthletics and @BGSUwbb), Instagram (@bgsuwbasketball) and Snapchat (BGSU Falcons) as well as on the web right here at BGSUFalcons.com.