The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team led from start
to finish en route to an 84-70 victory over visiting Ohio University in
Mid-American Conference Tournament first-round action on February 28th at BG's venerable Anderson Arena.
BGSU, the seventh seed in the tournament, opened the game on an 11-1 run
over the first five minutes. Dana Western, who scored five points in that
span, closed the run with a three-point field goal. Ohio's first basket
came on a conventional three-point play by Beckie Fischer at the 14:33 mark.
An Angie Farmer triple followed by a Western layup gave the Falcons a 16-4
lead before OU's Cathy Szall got hot. Szall made her first three-point
attempts of the night, while Jacquie Negrelli added one of her own in a
2:27 span. Szall's final trey of that stretch cut the Falcon lead to 26-16,
but BG's Jaymee Wappes hit a "three" just 19 seconds later. After the
squads traded layups, another Farmer triple gave the Falcons their biggest
lead of the half, 34-18, with 8:54 remaining.
OU promptly went on a 13-2 run over the next six minutes, with Heather
Laughlin doing most of the damage. Laughlin hit three triples in that
stretch and, when the smoke had cleared, BG's lead was just five points at
36-31.
The Falcons righted the ship, scoring the next 10 points. Farmer and Kim
Griech hit triples, Afra Smith canned a jumper and Wappes drained a pair of
free throws. Two OU charity tosses cut the BG lead to 13 points at the
half.
In the second stanza, the Falcons again opened quickly. BG scored the
first nine points of the stanza, with Miller registering the last five.
The sophomore had game-high totals of 23 points and 10 rebounds. The Brown
and Orange led by 22 points, the largest margin of the game, at the 14:25
mark.
After the teams traded baskets, the Bobcats slowly chipped away at the
lead. Negrelli scored eight consecutive points as part of a 9-0 OU run.
The 'Cats were within 10 at the 8:42 mark, and got as close as eight points
when Szall hit her second three-pointer in a 1:11 span. Szall, who had six
treys and a team-high 20 points, had narrowed the gap to 65-57 with 6:24
remaining.
After Miller split a pair of free throws, Smith converted an old-fashioned
three-point play, but Laughlin's fourth triple of the night cut the lead to
69-60 at the 5:20 mark. It was, however, as close as the Bobcats would get
for the remainder of the night.
Miller made back-to-back layups in a 19-second span, both off of long
outlet passes from Smith, and -- after a pair of Szall free throws -- hit
another layup at the 3:59 mark. The Falcon sophomore scored 10 consecutive
points for her team, with the last four points coming at the stripe.
BGSU made eight-straight charity tosses to put the game on ice. In
addition to Miller, Farmer was in double digits for the hosts, with 17
points, while Wappes and Western had 11 apiece. BG shot .563 from the
floor in the first half and .525 for the game.
The Bobcats, paced by Szall's 20 points, also got 19 from Negrelli and 14
from Laughlin. OU converted at a 40.7 percent rate from the floor, and had
the same success rate from three-point land, making 11 treys in 27 attempts.
BG, the national leaders in three-point field goals per game, made eight
triples, all in the first half. The Falcons, 8-of-14 from three-point land
in that 20 minutes, missed all five attempts from beyond the arc in the
second stanza.
The host Falcons held a 36-28 rebounding edge, led by Miller's 10 and
Sherry Kahle's nine. Wappes had a game-high eight assists and just one
turnover.
The win was the fifth in a row for the Falcons, the team's longest streak
since an eight-game span during the 1997-98 season.
With the victory, the Falcons improve to 11-16 on the season, and advance
to the quarterfinal round of the MAC Tournament to face second-seeded
Western Michigan. That game will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday (March 2)
at Cleveland's Public Hall.
Ohio, the 10th seed for the MAC Tournament, ends the season with an overall
record of 11-17.