Women's Basketball Rallies Late, but Falls to BG 61-58
1/14/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
KENT, Ohio Trailing by 18 points with 10 minutes to go, the Kent State womens basketball team made a furious rally to tie the game in the closing minutes but it wasnt enough as Bowling Green escaped with a 61-58 victory over the Golden Flashes, snapping KSUs 14-game home winning streak and taking sole posession of first place in the Mid-American Conference East Division this afternoon (Jan. 14) at the M.A.C. Center.
Kent State (9-5, 2-1 MAC) trailed 51-33 with 10:08 to go following a three-pointer by Bowling Greens Casey McDowell. A jumper by senior guard Malika Willoughby (Milwaukee, Wis./Washington/UW-Milwaukee) started an improbable 18-2 run against the league's top defense that cut the lead to just two points with 3:57 left.
Senior All-American candidate Lindsay Shearer (Minerva, Ohio/Minerva) scored six of her game-high 20 points during the spurt with Willoughby also chipping in with six during the run.
Shearers lay-up with 3:11 to go made the score 55-53 and brought the crowd of 1,483 to its feet. But BGs Carin Horne briefly silenced the crowd with a three-pointer as the shot clock was expiring to put the Falcons (12-3, 3-0 MAC) up five.
Shearer then scored five straight points, including a pair of free throws to tie the game for the first time since seven minutes into the game, making it a 58-58 score with 1:32 to go.
After Kate Achter hit 1-of-2 free throws, the Flashes had a chance to tie the game or go ahead, but Willoughby missed a pair of foul shots with 20 seconds remaining. Freshman Jasmine McCall then sealed the win by sinking both of her free throws with 10 seconds left.
I thought we played very tentatively in the first half, we played on our heels for the most part, and then we fell behind by 18 in the second half before we decided to start playing, said head coach Bob Lindsay. In these kind of games that often times there are one or two turnovers, sometimes there are missed free throws, sometimes there are missed easy shots. Whatever it might be thats the difference in the game.
The Falcons built a 15-point halftime lead (37-22) by holding Kent State to just 8-of-27 shooting (29.6%). Ali Mann, who led BG with 19 points, tallied 10 in the opening half, including six during the final nine minutes of the period when the Falcons outscored Kent State 22-10.
Kent State was able to creep back into the contest with its trademark stingy defense. The Flashes forced seven second-half turnovers and limited the Falcons to only seven field goals (7-of-28, 25%) after intermission.
Junior Lakia Stewart (Philadelphia, Pa./Central) recorded her fourth career double-double in the defeat, finishing with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Willoughby chipped in with 10 points and four assists. Shearer added seven boards to go along with her 20 points. She was just 5-of-11 from the field, but hit 10 free throws for the second consecutive game. She was 10-of-11 from the line, but the rest of the team was just 8-of-19.
For us there wasnt really one particular play that did that, but it was a series of plays a series of missed free throws, a couple of turnovers and a couple of botched defensive plays, and that was the difference in the game, added Lindsay.
Mann grabbed eight rebounds and fellow all-conference teammate Liz Honegger added 10 rebounds, along with nine points, to help the Falcons to a 43-40 edge on the glass. Achter aided the win with 11 points and five assists.
That was a great college basketball game between two teams that played their hearts out and left it all out on the floor, said Bowling Green head coach Curt Miller. Both teams played with a lot of passion and desire we feel very, very fortunate to come away with a win in an arena that very few people come into and beat Kent State.
Despite shooting 50% (12-of-24) in the second half, the Flashes were just 20-of-51 (39%) for the game, going 0-for-12 from three-point range. It marked the first time in 86 games that the Flashes failed to make a three-pointer.
Bowling Green shot just 34.4% from the field (22-of-64), but seven of those makes came from behind the arc (7-of-19, 36.8%).
Kent State will look to rebound on the road on Tuesday, Jan. 17, when the travel to Oxford, Ohio to face MAC East rival Miami University at 7 p.m.
GAME NOTES: After losing 12 in a row in the series, Bowling Green has now won two straight over KSU... the win was the Falcons first in Kent since Feb. 5, 1994 (0-10)... the last time Kent State did not make a three-pointer was Feb. 19, 2003 at Marshall (L, 62-47)... the double-double was Stewarts second this season... Shearer moved into eight place on the Kent State career rebounding list (691) and fourth on the made free throws list (385)... in addition, Shearer is 20-of-21 from the foul line in her last two games... in the last two games, Stewart totaled 27 points and 20 rebounds combined... Willoughbys four assists give her 425 in her KSU career, one behind B.J. Smith-Goldman for third place on the schools all-time list... KSU had a season-low 11 turnovers... the loss was KSUs first when outshooting its opponent by percentage (8-1)... the two teams were meeting for the first time since BGs 81-75 victory in the 2005 Kraft MAC Tournament championship game... Shearer has totaled 64 points and 18 rebounds in the last two games against Bowling Green... Kent State remains one win shy of 500 for the programs history (499-349).
