Sunday, December 1
Springfield, MA
10:00 AM
Bowling Green State University
71
vs
48
Monmouth
Falcons' Strong Second-Half Start Dooms Monmouth, 71-48
December 01, 2013 | Women's Basketball
Hoekstra scores a career-high 18 points as BGSU moves to 7-1
FINAL STATISTICS: HTML | PDF
POSTGAME AUDIO: Jennifer Roos
Junior Deborah Hoekstra led the Falcons and tied for game scoring honors, with a career-high 18 points. Hoekstra made seven of her eight shots from the floor, including a 3-for-4 performance from three-point land.
Hoekstra was named the Falcons' Player of the Game, as each of the eight teams in Sunday's quadruple-header had one player recognized after the game.
Sophomore Miriam Justinger had 16 points, also a career high, while redshirt sophomore Erica Donovan rounded out BG's double-digit scorers with 11 points.
The Falcons never trailed, but the Hawks cut BGSU's lead to a single point, 25-24, late in the first half. BG scored the last five points of the opening period, then opened the second half by scoring 12-straight points to take a 42-24 lead.
Monmouth went a total of 8:28 without scoring, and after Chevannah Paalvast finally broke that drought with a jumper, the Falcons extended the lead to 24 points on a Donovan shot with just over 11 minutes to go.
BGSU's lead reached 30 points on a pair of free throws by senior Jillian Halfhill with just under six minutes remaining, and that lead reached a game-high 34 on the last of six-straight BG points by freshman Rachel Konieczki with four minutes left. The Hawks scored the game's last 11 points to make the final margin 23 points.
Paalvast had 18 points to lead the Hawks, while Jasmine Walker scored 13. Walker hit all three of her team's three-point field goals on the day, going 3-for-7. As a team, MU went 3-for-11 from long range.
Hoekstra and Justinger combined for five of the Falcons' six triples. In addition to Hoekstra's 3-for-4 performance, Justinger was 2-of-4 from behind the arc, and BG went 6-for-14 as a team.
The Falcons held a 36-29 rebounding advantage, and BG's defense forced Monmouth into 21 turnovers on the day. The Brown and Orange had advantages of 26-8 in points in the paint, 17-5 in points off turnovers and 19-4 in second-chance points.
In between those two baskets, Rogers fed classmate Jill Stein for a jumper. But, the Hawks matched the Falcons bucket for bucket on those first three possessions, and the game was tied at 6-6 with just over three minutes gone.
Donovan's putback at the 16:20 mark gave the Falcons the lead for good, and after the BG defense forced a Monmouth miss, a long pass by Stein led to an easy layup for Justinger. Then, Stein found Rogers cutting down the lane for a layup and a 12-6 advantage.
Shira Shecht answered with a jumper, but Hoekstra took a pass from Halfhill and drained a corner three for a 15-10 lead. Jenny Horvatinovic responded with a jumper for the Hawks, and then the teams went through a prolonged scoring drought.
The Falcons and Hawks went through a scoreless stretch of over six-and-a-half minutes, before Hoekstra doubled BG's lead with 6:29 left before halftime, taking a pass from Matthews and knocking down her second triple of the game for an 18-12 BG lead.
Walker answered with a triple, but Justinger hit a trey of her own, and Hoekstra followed with a pull-up jumper, giving the Brown and Orange a 23-15 advantage.
Monmouth rallied with six-straight points, all coming from Paalvast. She hit a jumper, banked home a foul-line shot and got a driving layup to go. Suddenly, BG's lead was down to two points.
BG responded, as Hoekstra threw it inside to Donovan for a layup, but Walker hit a three as the Falcons were called for a foul away from the ball. Monmouth was within a single point, 25-24, and the Hawks kept possession withi just over two minutes on the clock.
The Falcons got a stop, however, forcing Monmouth to turn the ball over, and Hoekstra's third triple of the half gave her 11 points and her team a four-point advantage. Then, after an offensive foul on MU, Halfhill's runner late in the half gave BG a 30-24 lead at the break.
After scoring the final five points of the first half, the Brown and Orange would record the first 12 of the second to wrest control of the game. Justinger sliced through several would-be defenders for a layup, and Halfhill fed Stein for another layup off an inbounds pass, putting BG ahead by double digits.
Stein found Justinger cutting down the lane for a nifty reverse layup, and a Rogers steal and layup gave the Falcons a 38-24 lead with 16:23 to go. Moments later, Justinger knocked down a pair of free throws after a Flagrant 1 foul was called on MU's Helena Kurt, and the sophomore then threw a pass inside to Donovan for a layup and a 42-24 lead with 14 minutes left.
Paalvast hit a jumper for Monmouth's first points of the half -- breaking that scoring drought of almost eight and a half minutes -- but Justinger came right back with a three-pointer. And, when the Sylvania native pulled down a defensive rebound and threw a long pass downcourt for an easy Donovan layup, BG's lead exceeded 20 points for the first time.
Walker's jumper was answered by a Hoekstra hoop from just inside the arc, and Donovan scored the next three points for a 52-28 BG advantage. The Hawks scored five-straight points, but the Falcons broke Monmouth's press, and Donovan fed Hoekstra for an 'and-one' layup with just over eight minutes to go.
Hoekstra hit the resulting free throw, and the junior then stole the ball from Jamiyah Bethune and sailed in for a layup and a 57-33 lead.
Moments later, Hoekstra fed a trailing Halfhill for a three-ball and a 61-35 advantage, and after a Justinger layup, Halfhill's two free throws at the 5:45 mark gave the Brown and Orange a 30-point lead.
Konieczki scored BG's next six points, with the first four coming at the free-throw line. Her short right-side jumper with 3:35 to go gave the Falcons a 71-37 lead, before MU made the score slightly more respectable with a game-ending 11-0 run.
Rogers had eight points in the win, while Halfhill scored seven, Konieczki six and Stein five.
Falcon freshman Leah Bolton made her collegiate debut in Sunday's game, taking the court with 6:28 left in the game and playing the rest of the contest. Bolton missed the Falcons' exhibition game and the first seven regular-season matches due to injury.
The Falcons return home for the next two contests, on back-to-back Sundays at the Stroh Center. BGSU faces Milwaukee next weekend (Dec. 8) and Massachusetts seven days later (Dec. 15), with both contests set to start at 2:00 p.m. at the Stroh Center. All five of BGSU's December games will take place on Sunday afternoons.
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