Sunday, November 24
Columbus, OH
3:30 PM
Bowling Green State University
64
at
52
Ohio State
Falcons Knock Off Ohio State, 64-52, in Columbus
November 24, 2013 | Women's Basketball
Halfhill fuels second-half surge as BGSU moves to 6-1
FINAL STATISTICS: HTML | PDF
POSTGAME AUDIO: Jillian Halfhill & Jennifer Roos
PHOTO GALLERY
With the win, the Falcons improve to 6-1 on the year. The Buckeyes drop to 5-2. BGSU downed Ohio State for the first time in nearly four decades, since Jan. 18, 1975.
Sophomore Miriam Justinger led the Falcons with a career-high 14 points, while senior Jillian Halfhill scored 13 and had a game- and season-high six assists. Junior Deborah Hoekstra rounded out the Falcons' double-digit scorers with 11 points in the win.
Hoekstra had the hot hand in the first half, leading all scorers in the first 20 minutes as BGSU took a four-point lead into the intermission. Halfhill put together her own personal 7-0 run after the Buckeyes closed to within two points in the second half, and Justinger slammed the door with back-to-back three-point field goals in the late stages of the game.
BGSU shot a blistering 57.1 percent from three-point range, going 12-of-21 from beyond the arc. Justinger led the way with a 4-for-6 long-distance performance, while Hoekstra was 3-of-4 from three-point land on the afternoon.
Justinger's three-point field-goal total doubled her previous career high. The sophomore hit two triples in a game three times last season. Hoekstra tied her season high in that category, and fell just one trey shy of matching her career best.
Ameryst Alston led the Buckeyes with 15 points on Sunday, while Raven Ferguson scored 12 and Darryce Moore added 10.
BG shot 45.1% from the field in the win, including a 14-of-26 effort (53.8%) in the second half. By contrast, the Falcons held OSU to just four successful first-half field goals. The Buckeyes shot 18.2% from the floor in the opening period and just 25.0% (12-of-48) for the game.
OSU went 24-of-26 from the free-throw line, while BG was 6-of-9 at the stripe. The Falcons offset that differential by outrebounding the taller Buckeyes by four (36/32), and hitting 11 more field goals (23/12), including eight more three-pointers (12/4) than the hosts.
In fact, BGSU's total of three-point field goals made matched OSU's total field goals (two-pointers or three-pointers) for the game.
After spotting the Buckeyes the first bucket of the game, the Falcons scored the next eight points and never trailed again. BGSU led by as many as seven points on several occasions in the first half, before taking a 25-21 lead at the break.
In the second period, the visitors built the lead to nine points with just under 16 minutes left, but saw the home side score seven-straight points in just over a minute to cut the lead to a single bucket. But, Halfhill answered with seven consecutive points of her own, as the Falcons went on a 12-0 run to take a 14-point lead.
BG's advantage dropped below double digits only once the rest of the way, as Cait Craft's three-pointer got the Buckeyes within nine points with 4:01 to go. An Alston free throw narrowed the gap a little further, before back-to-back treys by Justinger removed any lingering doubt about the outcome.
Moore opened the scoring with a layup, but the Falcons countered with an eight-point run. Justinger's pass found redshirt sophomore Erica Donovan in the right corner, and Donovan's resulting three-ball gave BG the lead at the 18:23 mark. BGSU would lead the rest of the way.
Halfhill hit senior Alexis Rogers for a trey from the same spot, and Justinger's jump-stop floater in the lane gave the Brown and Orange an 8-2 advantage at the 17:19 mark.
Moore picked up her second foul for the Buckeyes less than a minute later, and headed to the bench. With just over five minutes gone, some nice inside-out passing by the Falcons led to a wide-open look for Halfhill, and she knocked down a triple try for an 11-4 lead. Martina Ellerbe hit a jumper for the hosts, but junior Jasmine Matthews got a running one-hander to drop, and BG was up by a 13-6 count.
The Falcons began to experience some foul trouble, however, as Donovan picked up her second foul of the game with 12:33 to go in the half, and senior Jill Stein was whistled for her second foul just 14 seconds later. The only points over the next few minutes came from Ferguson at the free-throw line, as she was 4-for-4 to cut BG's lead to three points.
Hoekstra, however, proceeded to score BGSU's next five points, and 11 of the Falcons' next 12. The junior pulled up for a floater in the lane, and after Alston answered with a layup, Hoekstra faked a pass at the arc, then let a shot fly, connecting from long range for an 18-12 lead.
Rogers stole the ball from Amy Scullion and was fouled, splitting the resulting free throws. Alston knocked down a three-pointer, but freshman Kennedy Kirkpatrick found Hoekstra in the left corner for another trey and a 22-15 Falcon lead.
Neither team hit a field goal for nearly four minutes, but the Buckeyes got to the line for four free throws, making them all, during that span. Ferguson and Alston each went 2-for-2, and BG's lead was just three.
Hoekstra, however, hit her third trey of the half, this time from the right corner with a Buckeye defender closing out, and the Falcons had a 25-19 lead. Two more Ferguson free throws, her seventh and eighth of the half, cut BG's lead to four points at the intermission.
In that first half, OSU had two stretches of roughly four and a half minutes without making a field goal, and the Buckeyes went the final 7:58 of the period without getting a shot to drop. OSU's four first-half buckets came at 19:09, 14:26, 10:05 and 7:58, respectively.
Hoekstra had all 11 of her points in that opening half, leading all players in scoring. No other Falcon had more than four first-half points.
The second half began with Justinger hitting a corner three for a 28-21 BGSU lead. The sophomore scored 12 of her 14 points after halftime. After a Ferguson hoop and a Scullion three got the hosts within two points, Justinger hit another trey, this time from the other corner, and Halfhill followed with a coast-to-coast layup after a defensive rebound, and BGSU's lead was 33-26 as the Buckeyes used a timeout. Halfhill scored 10 of her 13 points, and dished out five of her six assists, in the second period.
Stein was called for her third foul of the game, and the Bucks hit two more free throws. But, Donovan's nifty pass found Rogers for a back-door layup, and Donovan then ripped the ball away from Maleeka Kynard and headed in for a layup and a 37-28 lead with 15:54 to go.
The home team, though, got a pair of layups from Moore, sandwiched around a three-point play by Alston. In that span, Rogers and Hoekstra each picked up foul number three, and suddenly, the Falcons had just a two-point lead, along with four players in foul trouble.
And, BG missed a three-pointer on the next possession, and Kynard headed downcourt for what appeared to be a game-tying layup. Her shot would not drop, however, and Donovan rebounded with 13:48 to go. BG missed a shot at the other end, but an Alston turnover gave the ball back to the Falcons, and Halfhill took advantage.
First, she faked a three-point try, took two more dribbles and hit a tough shot from just inside the arc. Then, the point guard took a pass from Donovan and knocked down a three-pointer from the right wing.
And, Halfhill wasn't finished. She stole the ball from Alston and converted a transition layup with 11:50 to go. Halfhill's seven points during that 64-second stretch gave the Brown and Orange a 44-35 lead, and the Buckeyes used a timeout.
The timeout did not change the hosts' fortunes, however, as Halfhill assisted Stein on a left-side jumper, then spotted Matthews for a three-pointer. The Matthews trey came after she had missed the front end of a one-and-one opportunity, but alertly rebounded her own miss. Stein's shot had given BG a double-digit lead for the first time, and the Matthews trey put the Falcons up by a 49-35 count.
Over the next five minutes, each team hit only one field goal. Those shots came within 19 seconds of one another, as Stein's layup at the shot-clock buzzer was answered by a Ferguson jumper with 7:35 to go. Then, as the fouls mounted, the teams traded points at the line.
Donovan had four fouls for the Falcons, but a nifty offensive rebound by Stein led to Moore's fourth foul for the home team with 7:10 remaining. Stein had a game-high 10 rebounds on Sunday, and she also went 4-of-4 at the line, including two shots after that Moore foul for a 53-39 lead.
Moore made a pair of tosses, but Stein got back to the line with 5:21 to play, hitting both shots once again. Scullion drew a foul on Rogers, her fourth of the game, with 4:35 left, and the ensuing free throws were followed by Craft's three-pointer to cut BG's lead to single digits at 55-46.
Alston split a pair of charity tosses to cut the Buckeyes' deficit to just eight points with 2:55 left, but Justinger made sure the hosts would get no closer. First, she took a Halfhill pass and knocked down a three from the right corner with 2:04 to play. Then, after a turnover gave the ball back to the Falcons, Stein found the junior spotting up in that same corner, and Justinger hit another trey. The two triples came just 11 seconds apart, and gave BG a 61-47 lead.
After two OSU misses at the other end, Matthews threw in a runner with the shot clock winding down, and BG's lead was a game-high 16 points with less than a minute remaining. OSU scored five-straight points, but it was too little, too late, and Halfhill's free throw with 22 seconds left closed the scoring.
BGSU six wins this season include five away from home. The Falcons have defeated two Big Ten Conference teams by double digits, having downed Michigan, 63-52, in the regular-season opener at the Iona Tip-Off Tournament in New Rochelle, N.Y. (Nov. 8). The Falcons are 5-1 in all games away from the Stroh Center, including a perfect 3-0 mark in true road games (Iona, Butler and OSU) and a 2-1 record in neutral-site contests (wins over U-M and Old Dominion and a loss to Marist).
The Falcons will conclude play in the Basketball Hall of Fame Challenge next weekend, heading to Springfield, Mass., for a Sunday (Dec. 1) game vs. Monmouth University. That game, the opening contest of a quadrupleheader, will begin at 10:00 a.m. at the MassMutual Center.
BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME CHALLENGE
(all games at Value City Arena; Columbus, Ohio)
Friday, Nov. 22
Marist 74, Bowling Green 60
Ohio State 75, Old Dominion 60
Saturday, Nov. 23
Bowling Green 77, Old Dominion 58
at Ohio State 62, Marist 59
Sunday, Nov. 24
Marist 87, Old Dominion 82 (OT)
Bowling Green 64, at Ohio State 52
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