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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
UNC Greensboro
Falcons Down UNC Greensboro, 71-53, for Fourth-Straight Win
November 29, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 29, 2008
Final Stats
BGSU-UNCG Boxscore in PDF Format 
Miller Post-Game Audio
GREENSBORO, N.C. (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team pulled away from UNC Greensboro, shooting 56 percent from the field after halftime en route to a 71-53 win Saturday afternoon (Nov. 29). The non-conference game, the final contest in the UNCG Marriott Classic, was held at Fleming Gym.
With the win, the Falcons improve to 4-2 overall, and BGSU has won four consecutive games. The host Spartans drop to 1-5.
Junior Niki McCoy was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, while sophomore Lauren Prochaska was selected to the all-tournament team.
Prochaska led all scorers on Saturday, with her 20 points including 13 in the second half. She scored eight of the Falcons' 10 points in a two-minute span midway through that half, as BG extended the lead from six points to 12.
McCoy joined Prochaska in double digits, scoring 16 points in the win. Both players had seven rebounds to tie for team honors.
Freshman Jessica Slagle played 34 minutes, by far the most of her brief collegiate career, and had nine points and four assists in the victory. Slagle played the final 16:32 of the first half after starting point guard Tracy Pontius was whistled with two quick fouls. Pontius returned to play the bulk of the second-half minutes, but Slagle played much of the half as well, at the other guard spot.
Junior Tara Breske and soph Jen Uhl had six points apiece, with Uhl contributing a game- and career-high four blocked shots. Breske had three blocks as the Falcons recorded eight as a team.
"I thought we grew up today," said Falcon head coach Curt Miller. "That's a very good UNCG team, despite their record. They have had a tough schedule out of the gate. They are very similar to some of the MAC teams we are going to face. I thought we did a better job throughout the game of handling their pressure.
"We really buckled down and had a good defensive game, held them to 30 percent shooting, and really guarded the arc tonight. We knew that was going to be important, and we're very excited. That was a big win, and we are gradually getting better and growing up. That win felt very good for us."
The Falcons scored on the game's opening possession, as senior Lindsey Goldsberry spotted Prochaska alone under the hoop for a layup 20 seconds in. Neither team would score for over two minutes, before Agne Girstautaite hit a layup. Goldsberry responded with a jumper, before another layup by Girstautaite knotted the game at 4-4 at the first media timeout.
The game was also tied at 6-6 and 8-8, with Girstautaite scoring six of her team's first eight points. Prochaska's driving layup produced that 8-8 deadlock.
Slagle drew a Spartan foul and hit both free throws at the 11:31 mark, then drove for a layup after a nice screen by Uhl.
Amanda Leigh's three-point field goal cut BG's lead to 12-11, but after three offensive rebounds by the Brown and Orange, Breske's fourth-chance layup gave the Brown and Orange a three-point lead with 9:24 left in the half.
That lead was extended to five points as Slagle found McCoy ahead of the pack for a layup. Several minutes later, Uhl stole a UNCG inbounds pass and scored on a breakaway layup of her own, and the Falcons had a 19-13 lead.
Gini Grimsley hit a jumper for the home team, but Slagle fired a pass ahead to McCoy for a transition three-pointer, and the Falcons had a seven-point lead as the Spartans used a timeout.
UNCG slowly crept back after that timeout, scoring the next six points while holding the Falcons scoreless for over three minutes. A jumper by Kendra Smith got the Spartans within a single point.
But, McCoy powered her way for a layup in traffic while being fouled. The layup went down, the ensuing free throw went down, and the Falcons had a 25-21 lead with 3:26 left in the half.
Prochaska hit a three off Slagle's inbounds pass, and the lead was seven. Leigh came right back with a triple at the other end of the court, but another driving layup by McCoy gave the Brown and Orange a 30-24 lead.
Two free throws by Lakiah Hyson cut the Falcons' lead to four points at the half. Hyson led the Spartans with 16 points on the day.
The hosts got off to a quick start in the second half. Ashley Mullins hit a shot with one toe on the three-point line, and a layup by Girstautaite tied the score with only 45 seconds gone.
The Falcons responded, as Breske converted a layup, and Goldsberry took a Prochaska pass and knocked down a three-pointer, but Hyson would score the game's next four points to cut BG's lead to 35-34.
Nearly five minutes into the half, McCoy drove the baseline and whipped a pass to Pontius up top, and the sophomore buried a three-pointer of her own, to give BG a 40-35 lead.
Several minutes later, Pontius drove down Main Street and scored easily, as her teammates had cleared out the lane. Her shot gave the Falcons a five-point lead at 44-39 with 12:44 left.
The home team split a pair of free throws, but Prochaska converted a layup off a Pontius inbounds pass, and drew a Spartan foul. Prochaska completed the three-point play, giving BG a 47-40 lead with just under 12 minutes remaining.
Prochaska then hit a three-ball for the first double-digit lead of the day, and after a Hyson layup, sophomore Chelsea Albert grabbed a teammate's miss and hit a layup in traffic.
A layup by Uhl gave the Falcons a 12-point lead with fewer than eight minutes left, and Slagle took a Pontius pass and drained a key three-pointer from the right corner, giving the visitors a 15-point lead, 59-44, with six minutes on the clock.
UNCG tried to narrow the gap, but the Falcons had an answer each time. Prochaska hit another triple with 4:34 left, and McCoy's 'and-one' putback at the 3:37 mark upped the lead to 16.
Hyson scored at the 3:14 mark, and the home team forced a miss on BG's next possession, but McCoy stole the ball back and found Prochaska for a layup and a 67-51 advantage at the 2:30 mark. Layups by Uhl and Albert bookended a Grimsley jumper in the final minute, leading to the final margin.
BGSU shot 48.1 percent from the field for the game, including a 14-for-25 performance (56.0%) in the second period. The Falcons held UNCG to a 30.0% shooting effort.
BGSU made seven three-pointers, including three from Prochaska, while the BG defense allowed Greensboro to go just 2-for-20 from long distance.
For the Spartans, Girstautaite and Leigh joined Hyson in double figures, with 10 points apiece, while Grimsley added nine. Hyson led the hosts in rebounding in addition to scoring, with nine rebounds.
The Falcons now return home for the next four games, beginning with Wednesday's (Dec. 3) contest vs. Detroit. BGSU will not play a game outside the state of Ohio for the entire month of December. Wednesday's game will begin at 7:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena.
NOTES
* McCoy, as mentioned, was named the Most Outstanding Performer (MVP) of the UNCG Marriott Classic, with Prochaska also named to the all-tournament team ... Florida Gulf Coast had two players, Kelsey Jacobson and Adrianne McNally, named to the squad, with UNCG's Lakiah Hyson and Winston-Salem State's Keoshia Worthy rounding out the team.
* No team championship trophy was awarded, as the Falcons and FGCU each went 2-0 in the classic ... FGCU had downed WSSU, 57-43, in Saturday's first game at Fleming Gym.
UNCG Marriott Classic All-Tournament Team
Keoshia Worthy, Winston-Salem State
Lakiah Hyson, UNC Greensboro
Adrianne McNally, Florida Gulf Coast
Kelsey Jacobson, Florida Gulf Coast
Lauren Prochaska, Bowling Green
MVP: Niki McCoy, Bowling Green
* Junior Sarah Clapper's sister, Amy, is a freshman at UNCG ... Amy did not see action in this weekend's games, as she is out for the season with an injury.
* The Falcons shot 54.2 percent as a team on the three-game, week-long road swing ... BGSU averaged 83.0 points per game in that stretch, picking up wins over Saint Francis (Pa.), Winston-Salem State and UNCG.
* Sophomore Jen Uhl had a career-high four blocked shots in Saturday's win ... that doubled her previous career best ... with seven blocks in six games in 2008-09, Uhl is just two away from matching her total for all of last season.
