Rockets Squeak Past Falcons in Latest Battle of I-75

Saturday, January 18

Toledo, OH

2:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

7-10,0-5MAC

Toledo

9-7,4-1MAC

OT 1

Bowling Green

Toledo

(photo by Dan Miller, UT Athletics)

January 18, 2020 | Women's Basketball

Box Score Final Stats

UT ekes out overtime win at home, 79-72

By: by Mike Cihon, Assistant Director for Athletic Communications

For the fourth-straight game, the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team battled a Mid-American Conference opponent right down to the wire. But, the Falcons fell just short against the University of Toledo, as the Rockets escaped with a 79-72 overtime win on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 18). The latest round of the "Battle of I-75" was held at Savage Arena in the Glass City.

Junior Madisen Parker had a game-high 21 points, including a three-point field goal that gave the Falcons a two-point lead with 38.3 seconds remaining in regulation. Parker hit five triples to move into the top 20 on that BGSU career list.

Sophomore Kadie Hempfling tied her career high with 19 points, and also had a game-high nine rebounds on Saturday. Hempfling was 9-of-11 from the field vs. the Rockets.

After Parker's triple late in regulation, however, UT's Mariella Santucci tied the game with a driving layup with 22.1 seconds to go. BG could not convert on the final possession, and the contest went to overtime.

In the OT session, a 6-0 run gave the Rockets a four-point lead. Junior Mari Hill hit a foul-line jumper just past the midway point of the period, but a three-pointer by Sara Rokkanen gave the hosts a 73-68 lead with 1:25 to go.

Hill and fellow junior Angela Perry each scored 10 points, while freshman Elissa Brett added eight and senior Clare Glowniak four off the bench. Nine different Falcons had at least one assist in the contest.

Quinesha Lockett paced the Rockets with 20 points, while Rokkanen added 15.

QUOTING COACH FRALICK
"This was a quintessential rivalry game. I thought it was everything that was advertised; it came right down to the wire. Credit to Toledo -- I thought their seniors in particular really stepped up and made some plays down the stretch. But I'm really proud of our team. We've had some tough games, and we keep sticking around and keep getting better. We're so close, and what we're rally around is that we are just a play or two away from things changing for us, and that's really encouraging."

"This is an awful feeling today, and we've experienced it a few times recently, but it's also motivating, and I'll go to war with every one of those kids in the locker room."

QUOTING KADIE HEMPFLING
"It's heartbreaking. Every loss is heartbreaking, but this one is especially heartbreaking. Sending it into overtime on the road against Toledo ... this is one of the hardest places to play in the MAC. It's very disappointing. But we're getting there. We're gonna turn the corner, and it's gonna be soon."

FIRST QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS
• Neither team shot the ball particularly well in the opening 10 minutes, as the Falcons and Rockets combined to go just 8-for-31 from the floor.
• Mari Hill found Kadie Hempfling for a bank shot that opened the scoring, and after the teams went over two minutes without scoring Hill's feed led to an Angela Perry hoop and a 4-2 lead.
• Kaillie Hall's pass resulted in Hempfling's straightaway three-pointer and an 8-4 advantage, and Hempfling scored again, with a turnaround jumper off of a Clare Glowniak feed to give BG a 10-4 lead with 2:01 left in the quarter.
• But, back-to-back buckets by Tanaya Beacham cut the BG lead to two points after 10 minutes of action.
• Hempfling had seven of BGSU's 10 first-quarter points, and five of the Falcons' 13 rebounds.

SECOND QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS
• A steal by the Rockets led to a layup try by Quinesha Lockett that bounced around and in, tying the score.
• Lockett would score 11 of UT's 21 second-quarter points, including a pair of three-point plays. The first gave the Rockets a 13-11 lead just over a minute into the period.
• But, Elissa Brett pulled up and hit a long two-pointer, and Madisen Parker spotted Perry for a layup. When Brett knocked down a three-pointer, the Falcons had a 7-0 run and an 18-13 lead. But, Lockett's second three-point play of the quarter cut the BG lead to two at the 6:57 mark.
• Parker, however, hit back-to-back three-pointers, sandwiched around a UT putback. Parker's second trey in that stretch gave the Falcons a 24-18 lead.
• UT, however, scored 11-straight points, as Arianne Whitaker's Euro-step-followed-by-another-step layup gave the hosts the lead with three minutes left in the half, and Lockett's corner three made it a 29-24 lead for the home side.
• Perry hit a turnaround one-hander to stop that run and get the Falcons within three points at the break.

THIRD QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS
• Hempfling opened the third-period scoring with a nifty behind-the-back dribble move and a layup. Tatyana Davis answered with a three-ball, but Hill came right back with a driving layup, and Brett's pull-up jumper knotted the score at 32-32.
• BG's run continued, as Brett laid the ball off to a cutting Hill for a wide-open layup and the lead, and Hempfling hit a driving layup. The run was 8-0, the score was 36-32 and the Rockets wanted a timeout.
• UT's Soleil Barnes hit a three, but Parker answered at the other end, taking an Olivia Trice pass and hitting a long-range shot of her own. Hill's layup made it a 41-35 game.
• Trice lobbed the ball inside to Glowniak for a layup, and Glowniak blew past her would-be defender, heading down the lane for another bucket on BG's next possession. But, the Rockets were answering at the other end, as Beacham converted a three-point play before Sara Rokkanen knocked down a corner three.
• Then, Lockett and Rokkanen hit layups to tie the game, and Sophia Wiard scored in the final seconds of the period to give UT a 47-45 lead.

FOURTH QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS
• Perry lobbed the ball inside to Hempfling for a quick bucket on the opening possession, but Rokkanen's three gave UT the lead once again.
• Again, Hempfling scored after a Perry pass, and a Parker entry led to another Hempfling hoop and a 51-50 lead with 7:05 to go.
• Whitaker scored, but Parker hit a spectacular and-one layup, with the free throw putting BG ahead by two. Wiard's pull-up jumper tied the score, but Hill answered with a pull-up J of her own from the left elbow, then tied up a UT opponent, with the possession arrow pointing BG's way as the teams reached the media timeout.
• Out of the break, Parker's inbounds pass led to another Hempfling layup. Ut turned the ball back over, but off of another inbounds pass, Brett could not get her layup try to drop, and Whitaker scored at the other end to cut BG's lead to two points.
• The teams traded misses before Hill hit Parker for a three-pointer and a 61-56 lead with 2:29 remaining. Lockett answered with a driving layup, and after a BG entry pass was tipped and stolen, a foul sent Lockett to the line with 1:37 on the clock. She made her first free throw, but missed the second, with Brett grabbing the rebound.
• BG could not score on the ensuing possession, and Mariella Santucci hit a three-pointer to give the Rockets a 62-61 lead with 53.3 seconds left.
• After a Falcon timeout, Hempfling found Parker for her go-ahead three-ball with 38.3 seconds remaining, before Santucci tied the score with a driving layup with 22.1 seconds to go.
• Hempfling drove the lane with the clock winding down, but her contested shot was off the mark. Wiard's half-court heave was wide left as the buzzer sounded.

OVERTIME HIGHLIGHTS
• Perry gave the Brown and Orange the lead with a minute gone, with a turnaround, finger-roll layup. But, Santucci's pass found a wide-open Beacham for the tying layup, and after BG was called for a three-second violation, Santucci hit a spinning layup with the shot-clock winding down. The Rockets led, 68-66, with just under three-minutes to go.
• Perry's contested shot did not go, as Beacham got her hand on the ball, a body part, or all of the above. Santucci's defensive rebound led to a Lockett run-out and a four-point lead.
• Hill answered quickly, with a foul-line jumper that cut the UT advantage to 70-68 with 2:15 left. BG forced a miss, but Caterrion Thompson's corner three would not drop, and on the next possession, Rokkanen hit a key three-pointer, giving the hosts a five-point margin, 73-68, with 1:25 on the clock.
• Perry, with a UT player draped all over her, scored at the other end, but a foul on the Falcons sent Rokkanen to the line with 45.2 seconds left, and she hit both free throws. After a BG miss, the Falcons fouled Lockett, who hit two shots from the stripe with exactly 23 seconds left, giving the home team a seven-point lead.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
• The teams had nearly identical field-goal numbers. BGSU was 30-for-64 (46.9%) from the field, while Toledo went 31-of-64 (48.4%).
• BGSU shot 53% from the floor in the third quarter and 62% in the fourth, going a combined 17-for-30 (56.7%) in that 20-minute stretch.
• Each team made seven three-pointers, although it took the Falcons only 17 attempts (41.2%) and the Rockets 25 (28.0%) to get there.
• UT doubled up the Falcons at the free-throw line, going 10-of-14 from the stripe to BG's 5-for-7 day.
• The Falcons had a narrow 36-35 rebounding advantage, with Hempfling pulling down a game-high nine, Brett six and Parker and Thompson five apiece.
• BG had 19 assists, with nine different players dishing out at least one. Parker led the way with five, while Hill and Trice had three apiece. Trice had those three times in just under six minutes of action.
• Trice and Glowniak tied for the team lead with a +10 plus/minus rate for the game.

UP NEXT
• The Falcons return home to face Western Michigan on Wednesday evening (Jan. 22). BG battles the Broncos in a 7:00 p.m. start at the Stroh Center.
•Then, the Brown and Orange will end the month of January with a trip to Athens to face Ohio next Saturday (Jan. 25). That contest begins at 1:00 p.m.

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