Saturday, March 20
Louisville, KY
12:11 PM
Bowling Green State University
62
vs
72
Michigan State (First Round)
Lauren Prochaska scores 2 of her game-high 19 points vs. MSU
Falcons' Season Ends with 72-62 Loss to Michigan State
March 20, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Prochaska, Pontius combine for 8 three-pointers, 34 points
Aisha Jefferson had 17 points to lead four Michigan State University players in double digits, as the Spartans picked up a 72-62 win over the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team Saturday afternoon (March 20). The game, a first-round contest in the 2010 NCAA Championships, was held at historic Freedom Hall in Louisville.
Final Stats - HTML | Boxscore - PDF | Postgame Notes | Video Highlights
BGSU-MSU Photo Gallery (photos by Dave Kielmeyer + Brad Phalin, BGSU)
Postgame Audio - Miller, Pontius and Prochaska | Quotes - PDF
With the win, the Spartans improve to 23-9 on the year, and MSU advances to Monday's (March 22) second round to play Kentucky. UK was an 83-77 winner over Liberty in the day's second game. The Falcons see the season come to an end with a record of 27-7.
Junior Lauren Prochaska scored a game-high 19 points, while classmate Tracy Pontius had 15. The duo combined for eight three-point field goals on the day, with Pontius going 5-of-8 from long range.
As a team, the Falcons were 11-of-22 from beyond the arc.
The game was tied, 36-36, at halftime, but the Spartans scored the first five points of the half to take the lead for good. MSU began the half on a 9-3 run. The Falcons got as close as three points on a jumper by senior co-captain Tara Breske with 11:32 to play, but Brittney Thomas banked in a three-pointer on the next possession.
The Spartans had taken a quick 8-0 lead to begin the game, forcing Falcon head coach Curt Miller to call a timeout with just over two and a half minutes gone. Jefferson opened the game with a three-pointer, with Lykendra Johnson scoring five-straight points. Johnson's triple gave MSU that eight-point advantage.
After making those two treys, however, the Spartans went just 2-of-14 from long distance the rest of the game.
BGSU responded with a 15-0 run over a five-and-a-half-minute span. Prochaska scored the Falcons' first eight points of the game, sandwiching two triples around a foul-line jumper. Her second long-range connection tied the score heading into the day's initial media timeout.
Out of the timeout, the Falcons forced an MSU miss, and freshman Chrissy Steffen took a pass from senior Tamika Nurse and drained a three-pointer in transition. Breske knocked down a jumper, and Steffen got the ball inside to junior Maggie Hennegan for a layup and a 15-8 lead at the 12:55 mark.
But, the Spartans responded with another run, scoring 10-straight points for an 18-15 lead. Jasmine Thomas converted a three-point play during that run, which culminated with a pair of Jefferson jumpers. During that run, Breske was whistled for her second foul of the day, and went to the bench.
Pontius broke BG's scoreless spell with a three-pointer from the left wing, after an offensive rebound and kick-out pass from classmate Kelly Zuercher. That triple tied the score at 18-all, but the Spartans worked the ball inside for layups by Lauren Aitch and Cetera Washington.
Again, though, the Falcons battled back. Nurse got to the line and hit a pair of free throws, and junior Jen Uhl tracked down an offensive rebound in the corner and hit a right-baseline jumper, knotting the score once again with six minutes left in the half.
But, Johnson's 'and-one' jumper gave the Spartans a three-point lead and sent Prochaska to the bench with two fouls and 5:14 still left in the half.
The Falcons missed a shot, but Nurse took a charge as Washington was called for the offensive foul, and the next possession saw Pontius hit another three-pointer to tie the score at 25-25.
The Spartans took a three-point lead as Jefferson hit a layup, then split a pair of free throws, but Pontius connected on a straightaway three with 3:02 left in the half. Washington knocked down a jumper, but Pontius hit yet again from long range. This time, she took a pass from Nurse and hit an absolute bomb, from at least three feet beyond the arc, and the Falcons led by a 31-30 count. Pontius scored nine-straight points for the Brown and Orange during that stretch.
In a first half that featured eight ties and five lead changes, the Spartans forged ahead yet again, as Aitch made a pair of charity tosses at the 2:05 mark. But, Steffen found Uhl for a three-pointer -- the Falcons' eighth of the half -- and BG led by a 34-32 count.
Brittney Thomas banked home a shot for the Green and White, but Steffen was fouled and hit both tosses for a 36-34 lead. Allyssa DeHaan, MSU's 6-foot-9 center, knocked down a jumper to tie the score for the eighth time. With mere seconds remaining in the half, Steffen let fly a three-point try that bounced around the iron and then hung on the rim for an excruciatingly long period of time before finally rolling off. The Spartans controlled the rebound, and the teams headed to their respective lockerrooms tied at 36.
The second half saw the Spartans get off to a fast start once again. MSU scored the first five points en route to the aforementioned 9-3 start and a 45-39 lead. During that stretch, Breske was called for her third foul of the day.
Prochaska got to the line and hit both shots, but the Falcons' leading scorer was whistled for foul number three and headed to the bench with exactly 15 minutes remaining. The Spartans got four quick points, with Aitch making two free throws, then coming up with a steal and layup for a 49-41 MSU lead. Miller brought Breske and Prochaska back into the game with 14 minutes left.
The Falcons got within six points after Nurse corralled a defensive rebound and fired a long outlet pass to Hennegan for a layup. Hennegan did a nifty job of avoiding a charging Spartan defender, adjusting the shot and hitting the layup.
Aitch hit a jumper at the shot-clock buzzer to give MSU an eight-point lead once again, but Pontius hit a three-pointer to cut the Falcons' deficit to 51-46 with just over 12 minutes left. Johnson was called for an offensive foul, and Breske hit a tough jumper to bring BG within just three points.
The Spartans then hit a big shot, however, as a Brittney Thomas three-point try banked off the backboard and through the net, giving State a 54-48 lead with 10:58 left.
Breske drew Washington's fourth foul of the afternoon, and the BG senior split the ensuing charity tosses, but Brittney Thomas and Jasmine Thomas each made jumpers for a 58-49 Spartan advantage, and Miller took a timeout with just under eight minutes remaining.
Prochaska went through four-fifths of the Spartans on the court for a nifty slicing layup, but Jefferson countered with a long two-pointer. Prochaska, the Mid-American Conference Player of the Year, drew a foul and hit both tries to cut the lead to 60-53, but DeHaan answered with a pair of tosses, and a steal and layup by Jasmine Thomas gave the Spartans a double-digit lead for the first time, 64-53, with 5:01 remaining.
Uhl split two free throws, and Prochaska hit two more shots from the stripe to cut MSU's margin to eigiht points. But, the Spartans did a masterful job of clock management down the stretch. Jefferson hit a jumper late in the shot clock for a 66-56 MSU lead with 2:40 left. After Breske answered with a short-corner jumper, Brittney Thomas banked home a jumper with the shot clock nearing zero. The Spartans led, 68-58, with 1:40 left.
Uhl got back to the line and split a pair of free throws, but Kalisha Keane's layup gave MSU a 70-59 advantage with just over a minute remaining.
With 43.8 seconds left, Miller used a timeout, inserting seniors Sarah Clapper and Laura Bugher into the contest. The Falcons ran a play that resulted in Nurse driving and dishing to Clapper for a left-elbow three-point try that found nothing but net with 19.4 seconds left. That would prove to be the final play in the collegiate careers of all four BG seniors.
Miller used his final timeout, let the five players (the four seniors and Prochaska) return to the court after the break, then substituted for the four seniors. Breske, Bugher, Clapper and Nurse came off the court for the final time, hugging their coaches and teammates amid applause from the Falcon faithful.
For the game, BGSU shot .373 from the field. The Brown and Orange made 11 three-point shots, but converted only eight shots from inside the arc. MSU shot .412 on the afternoon, and the Spartans held a 42-35 rebounding advantage.
Brittney Thomas and Jasmine Thomas had 11 points apiece, while Aitch scored 10 points off the bench. Johnson had nine points, while DeHaan scored eight and had a game-high 11 rebounds.
The Falcons got seven points from both Uhl and Breske, with Uhl adding six rebounds. Nurse had just two points, but had eight rebounds and seven assists. The rebound total tied her career high, while the seven assists fell just one shy of matching her career best.
Steffen had five points off the bench, while Hennegan had four points and seven rebounds.
Prochaska finished the season with a school-record 92 three-pointers made, the second-highest total in MAC history. She passed Keyla Snowden to move into second on that list. Snowden, who made 91 three-pointers in her lone season at Akron (2007-08), was in the building on Saturday, as she now plays for Kentucky.
Prochaska, after three years at BGSU, already ranks third in school history in scoring. She ends her junior year with 1,699 career points, an average of 16.7 per game. Pontius, with 998 career points, will enter her senior season needing just two to become the 24th player in BGSU history to reach the 1,000-point mark.
Miller and the Falcons won the MAC regular-season title for the sixth consecutive year in 2009-10, and captured the MAC Tournament crown for the fourth time in those six seasons. Miller and his staff lose the services of four seniors -- Breske, Bugher, Clapper and Nurse -- off of the 2009-10 squad. Breske, Bugher and Clapper, the three fourth-year Falcons, were part of 113 total wins at BG, the second-highest total in both school and conference history.
Final Stats - HTML | Boxscore - PDF | Postgame Notes | Video Highlights
BGSU-MSU Photo Gallery (photos by Dave Kielmeyer + Brad Phalin, BGSU)
Postgame Audio - Miller, Pontius and Prochaska | Quotes - PDF
With the win, the Spartans improve to 23-9 on the year, and MSU advances to Monday's (March 22) second round to play Kentucky. UK was an 83-77 winner over Liberty in the day's second game. The Falcons see the season come to an end with a record of 27-7.
Junior Lauren Prochaska scored a game-high 19 points, while classmate Tracy Pontius had 15. The duo combined for eight three-point field goals on the day, with Pontius going 5-of-8 from long range.
As a team, the Falcons were 11-of-22 from beyond the arc.
The game was tied, 36-36, at halftime, but the Spartans scored the first five points of the half to take the lead for good. MSU began the half on a 9-3 run. The Falcons got as close as three points on a jumper by senior co-captain Tara Breske with 11:32 to play, but Brittney Thomas banked in a three-pointer on the next possession.
The Spartans had taken a quick 8-0 lead to begin the game, forcing Falcon head coach Curt Miller to call a timeout with just over two and a half minutes gone. Jefferson opened the game with a three-pointer, with Lykendra Johnson scoring five-straight points. Johnson's triple gave MSU that eight-point advantage.
After making those two treys, however, the Spartans went just 2-of-14 from long distance the rest of the game.
BGSU responded with a 15-0 run over a five-and-a-half-minute span. Prochaska scored the Falcons' first eight points of the game, sandwiching two triples around a foul-line jumper. Her second long-range connection tied the score heading into the day's initial media timeout.
But, the Spartans responded with another run, scoring 10-straight points for an 18-15 lead. Jasmine Thomas converted a three-point play during that run, which culminated with a pair of Jefferson jumpers. During that run, Breske was whistled for her second foul of the day, and went to the bench.
Pontius broke BG's scoreless spell with a three-pointer from the left wing, after an offensive rebound and kick-out pass from classmate Kelly Zuercher. That triple tied the score at 18-all, but the Spartans worked the ball inside for layups by Lauren Aitch and Cetera Washington.
Again, though, the Falcons battled back. Nurse got to the line and hit a pair of free throws, and junior Jen Uhl tracked down an offensive rebound in the corner and hit a right-baseline jumper, knotting the score once again with six minutes left in the half.
But, Johnson's 'and-one' jumper gave the Spartans a three-point lead and sent Prochaska to the bench with two fouls and 5:14 still left in the half.
The Falcons missed a shot, but Nurse took a charge as Washington was called for the offensive foul, and the next possession saw Pontius hit another three-pointer to tie the score at 25-25.
The Spartans took a three-point lead as Jefferson hit a layup, then split a pair of free throws, but Pontius connected on a straightaway three with 3:02 left in the half. Washington knocked down a jumper, but Pontius hit yet again from long range. This time, she took a pass from Nurse and hit an absolute bomb, from at least three feet beyond the arc, and the Falcons led by a 31-30 count. Pontius scored nine-straight points for the Brown and Orange during that stretch.
In a first half that featured eight ties and five lead changes, the Spartans forged ahead yet again, as Aitch made a pair of charity tosses at the 2:05 mark. But, Steffen found Uhl for a three-pointer -- the Falcons' eighth of the half -- and BG led by a 34-32 count.
Brittney Thomas banked home a shot for the Green and White, but Steffen was fouled and hit both tosses for a 36-34 lead. Allyssa DeHaan, MSU's 6-foot-9 center, knocked down a jumper to tie the score for the eighth time. With mere seconds remaining in the half, Steffen let fly a three-point try that bounced around the iron and then hung on the rim for an excruciatingly long period of time before finally rolling off. The Spartans controlled the rebound, and the teams headed to their respective lockerrooms tied at 36.
Prochaska got to the line and hit both shots, but the Falcons' leading scorer was whistled for foul number three and headed to the bench with exactly 15 minutes remaining. The Spartans got four quick points, with Aitch making two free throws, then coming up with a steal and layup for a 49-41 MSU lead. Miller brought Breske and Prochaska back into the game with 14 minutes left.
The Falcons got within six points after Nurse corralled a defensive rebound and fired a long outlet pass to Hennegan for a layup. Hennegan did a nifty job of avoiding a charging Spartan defender, adjusting the shot and hitting the layup.
Aitch hit a jumper at the shot-clock buzzer to give MSU an eight-point lead once again, but Pontius hit a three-pointer to cut the Falcons' deficit to 51-46 with just over 12 minutes left. Johnson was called for an offensive foul, and Breske hit a tough jumper to bring BG within just three points.
The Spartans then hit a big shot, however, as a Brittney Thomas three-point try banked off the backboard and through the net, giving State a 54-48 lead with 10:58 left.
Breske drew Washington's fourth foul of the afternoon, and the BG senior split the ensuing charity tosses, but Brittney Thomas and Jasmine Thomas each made jumpers for a 58-49 Spartan advantage, and Miller took a timeout with just under eight minutes remaining.
Prochaska went through four-fifths of the Spartans on the court for a nifty slicing layup, but Jefferson countered with a long two-pointer. Prochaska, the Mid-American Conference Player of the Year, drew a foul and hit both tries to cut the lead to 60-53, but DeHaan answered with a pair of tosses, and a steal and layup by Jasmine Thomas gave the Spartans a double-digit lead for the first time, 64-53, with 5:01 remaining.
Uhl split two free throws, and Prochaska hit two more shots from the stripe to cut MSU's margin to eigiht points. But, the Spartans did a masterful job of clock management down the stretch. Jefferson hit a jumper late in the shot clock for a 66-56 MSU lead with 2:40 left. After Breske answered with a short-corner jumper, Brittney Thomas banked home a jumper with the shot clock nearing zero. The Spartans led, 68-58, with 1:40 left.
Uhl got back to the line and split a pair of free throws, but Kalisha Keane's layup gave MSU a 70-59 advantage with just over a minute remaining.
With 43.8 seconds left, Miller used a timeout, inserting seniors Sarah Clapper and Laura Bugher into the contest. The Falcons ran a play that resulted in Nurse driving and dishing to Clapper for a left-elbow three-point try that found nothing but net with 19.4 seconds left. That would prove to be the final play in the collegiate careers of all four BG seniors.
Miller used his final timeout, let the five players (the four seniors and Prochaska) return to the court after the break, then substituted for the four seniors. Breske, Bugher, Clapper and Nurse came off the court for the final time, hugging their coaches and teammates amid applause from the Falcon faithful.
For the game, BGSU shot .373 from the field. The Brown and Orange made 11 three-point shots, but converted only eight shots from inside the arc. MSU shot .412 on the afternoon, and the Spartans held a 42-35 rebounding advantage.
Brittney Thomas and Jasmine Thomas had 11 points apiece, while Aitch scored 10 points off the bench. Johnson had nine points, while DeHaan scored eight and had a game-high 11 rebounds.
The Falcons got seven points from both Uhl and Breske, with Uhl adding six rebounds. Nurse had just two points, but had eight rebounds and seven assists. The rebound total tied her career high, while the seven assists fell just one shy of matching her career best.
Steffen had five points off the bench, while Hennegan had four points and seven rebounds.
Prochaska finished the season with a school-record 92 three-pointers made, the second-highest total in MAC history. She passed Keyla Snowden to move into second on that list. Snowden, who made 91 three-pointers in her lone season at Akron (2007-08), was in the building on Saturday, as she now plays for Kentucky.
Prochaska, after three years at BGSU, already ranks third in school history in scoring. She ends her junior year with 1,699 career points, an average of 16.7 per game. Pontius, with 998 career points, will enter her senior season needing just two to become the 24th player in BGSU history to reach the 1,000-point mark.
Miller and the Falcons won the MAC regular-season title for the sixth consecutive year in 2009-10, and captured the MAC Tournament crown for the fourth time in those six seasons. Miller and his staff lose the services of four seniors -- Breske, Bugher, Clapper and Nurse -- off of the 2009-10 squad. Breske, Bugher and Clapper, the three fourth-year Falcons, were part of 113 total wins at BG, the second-highest total in both school and conference history.
Amy Velasco, Lexi Fleming, & Coach Chmiel Postgame Interview (Mar. 5, 2025)
Thursday, March 06
Paige Kohler, Coach Chmiel, & Amy Velasco Postgame Interview (Feb. 26, 2025)
Thursday, February 27
In the Paint: Lexxus Graham-Blincoe
Wednesday, February 26
Erika Porter, Amy Velasco, & Coach Chmiel Postgame Interview (Feb. 22, 2025)
Sunday, February 23