Bowling Green State University
NOTRE DAME
No. 16 Fighting Irish Beat Falcons at the Buzzer, 86-84 in OT
December 05, 2007 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 5, 2007
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Fighting Irish of nationally ranked Notre Dame narrowly escaped an upset at the hands of the Bowling Green State University Falcons on Wednesday (Dec. 5) night as senior Charel Allen sank a buzzer beating jumper from near the top of the key with 0.8 reaming on the clock in overtime. With the 86-84 OT win in Anderson Arena the Irish become 7-1 on the season and 3-0 against MAC squads in 2007. Bowling Green on the other hand will see its win streak snapped at six and is 6-1 on the season.
The Falcons six-win start in 2007 was the third time in program history (1974, 1988, 2007) in which BGSU was 6-0; their only better start was an eight win tear in 2005.
Notre Dame opened the game with a 5-0 lead on the Falcons after 56-seconds had been played; BG responded with a run of their own and was up 9-5 at the 15:52 mark. Lauren Prochaska capped the run with a steal and an assist on Kate Achter's three pointer. Each of the guard's had their hand in those first nine points either scoring it themselves or assisting on the basket.
The 9-5 four point lead was the second largest a team posted over the Irish at the time until the Falcons went on to gain an eight point advantage, 16-8, with 13:53 left in the first half. That eight point lead would become the largest deficit the Irish would have to rectify in a win this season.
ND's Devereaux Peters connected on the backend of a one-plus and was followed by Erica Williamson's jumper less than a minute later to cut the BG lead to five at 12:22.
Prochaska gave BG their second eight point lead of the night connecting on one of her five three pointers at 11:50, but Peters answered with five quick points while Melissa Lechlitner added a lay-up to lessen the Falcon lead to a basket, 19-17, at 10:39.
Prochaska kept up her perfect three-point field-goal night with her third trey of the night bolstering the Falcons to a five point lead. BG would next suffer a nearly five minute scoring drought in which the Irish would take control of their own five point lead until Prochaska connected on yet another long range field-goal. She would finish the night with a career-high five made.
ND went on to lead by as many as 10 points in the first half, scoring four freebies from the charity stripe as a result of a Lindsey Goldsberry foul and a technical foul which was assessed to the BGSU bench. ND hit back-to-back jumpers on the next pair of possessions to build their largest lead of the night at the double-digit margin.
Once Notre Dame took control of the lead in the first half, BGSU would go on to tie the score eight additional times and would lead by just one point in the second half.
Fourth-fifths of the BGSU starting unit - Prochaska, Goldsberry, Achter and Tara Breske - went on to contribute points for a first-half rally and Bowling Green found themselves down just two after 20:00 of play thanks to Achter's FG at 00:05.
At the first break, ND led BG on the boards 16-14 with each squad nabbing four offensive rebounds. In their 2006 meeting, ND surpassed BG on the boards 32-17 at the half.
The second-half, a dogfight not many expected considering ND's current national prominence and BG's youth, was kept at a five point or less BG deficit for the first seven minutes of the half. Notre Dame had a 52-47 lead on the Orange and Brown with six of BG's 10 points coming from inside the lane.
The Irish were then able to extend the lead to double-digits for the second and third times of the game as the first ten minutes expired of the half, 59-49.
After reserve guard Tracy Pontius missed a three point attempt at the 9:36 mark, the Falcons turned an ND turnover into points as Pontius stroked the bottom of the net from beyond the arc to cut the ND lead to seven. Breske was credited with the assist and would become Pontius' partner-in-points as the duo directly accounted for the proceeding eight Orange and Brown points. Breske not only picked-up six of her 10 points between 9:00 and 7:32, she also added an assist and a defensive rebound.
Notre Dame, continued to battle the Falcons point-for-point but saw a even 63-63 scoreboard with 5:55 remaining in regulation.
An old-fashioned three point play by Achter tied the game for the third time and then gave BG their only lead of the second half at plus-one. But, a Tuylah Gaines made free throw set the score even once again (64-all) at the 4:49 mark.
In a déjà vu experience, it was Breske's play in the second half which provided the contest with yet another tie (the fifth of the game) sending the squads into the media timeout with a dead even score to draw from. Achter contributed one of her game-high seven assists as Breske sank a jumper to make the score 66-66.
With a minute and change remaining in the second-half, ND was up by as many as five points on two occasions, but it was Sarah Clapper's three pointer at 00:48 that began the Falcon snowball of points ...
Achter's defensive rebound from Allen's missed lay-up (00:32) led to Ashley Barlow's fourth foul of the night and ten seconds later ND's second leading scorer was banished to her bench as a result of her fifth and final foul. In an attempt to "ice" Goldsberry Notre Dame took a 30-second timeout, but the junior swished both chances and the squads were looking at their sixth tie of the match.
In Notre Dame's final possession, the Irish looked to Allen for the game winning jumper, but Breske rejected the notion with her first blocked shot of the night and recovered the rebound with 00:02 on the clock to send the team's into a 5-minute overtime period.
In the overtime period, Bowling Green was a perfect 8-of-8 from the stripe while sinking just one field goal. For the match, BG shot a season-high 88.5% from the free throw line. ND, who led by as many as three at 1:09, knocked down four field goals including Allen's do-or-die jumper at 0.8. In the final 5-minute OT period, the Anderson Arena faithful, who cheered at 2228 strong, saw their Falcons tie the score four times.
Notre Dame has not won on a last second shot since Megan Duffy's OT lay-up ay 00:00 propelled the Irish over Big East foe Marquette, 66-65, on Jan. 10, 2006.
Prior to tonight, Bowling Green had not lost a non-conference game in the "House That Roars" since December 13, 2003 when the Oakland Grizzlies beat the host by seven points, 70-63. BG had won 13-straight non-conference games in Anderson Arena post-Oakland dating back to that loss.
Furthermore, counting tonight's loss, thru in-season only contests, the Falcons have lost by single-digits in nine games and are 68-9 dating back to their 51-48 loss to Eastern Michigan at home on Jan. 12, 2005. Seven of the aforementioned losses were by five-or-less points, while the Orange and Brown were defeated by three-or-less points on three occasions throughout that span.
Wednesday's outing also marked the second time in three outings, including a pair of NCAA tournament contests, versus ranked opponents where the Falcons have seen four players produce 10-plus points, in the other outing three BGSU player's fell into the double-digit category. Achter repeated last season's performance against ND with 20 points, while Prochaska (18), Crystal Murdaugh (career-high 14) and Breske (10) also topped out at the 10-plus range.
At tip-off, Notre Dame ranked statically as the 29th scoring defense in the NCAA allowing an average of 53.7 points per game - BG's 84 points were the most a team has netted against the Irish; Maryland was a close second with 75 against ND. Both teams faced the Irish in their home arena's with Maryland pulling out the win.
The Falcons will now prepare to live out of their suitcase as they begin a six game road-stand with future stops at Indiana (Dec. 16), Mount St. Mary's (Dec. 19) and Delaware (Dec. 21). They will then close the second month of play with three contests in the Iowa State Tournament. Beginning Dec. 29, BGSU will play back-to-back-to-back opponents in host Iowa State, Hampton and Tennessee-Martin.
BG will open the New Year one month from today, with their final scheduled non-conference opponent, Chicago State at home on Jan. 5.
##BGSU WOMEN'S BASKETBALL##
