BGSU Comes Up Short Despite Second-Half Run

Wednesday, January 28

DeKalb, IL

8:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

9-10, 2-6MAC

Northern Illinois

7-10, 3-4MAC

Bowling Green

NIU

Junior Miriam Justinger scored 13 points at NIU

Photo by: Bianca Garza, BGSU Marketing and Communications

January 28, 2015 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Falcons drop a 67-50 decision at NIU Wednesday night

By: DeKALB, Ill. (BGSU Athletic Communications)

The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team nearly erased a large second-half deficit, but the Falcons' comeback try fell short against Northern Illinois University Wednesday night (Jan. 28). Amanda Corral and the Huskies came away with a 67-50 win in Mid-American Conference action at the Convocation Center.

LINKS
FINAL STATISTICS: HTML | PDF
POST-GAME AUDIO: Coach Roos

Corral scored 30 points to lead the home team to victory. She hit 12-of-15 shots and was a perfect 4-for-4 from three-point range.

Senior Deborah Hoekstra scored 14 points for the Falcons (9-10, 2-6 MAC), who placed three players in double figures, and Hoekstra also paced the Brown and Orange with eight rebounds. Junior Miriam Justinger scored 13 points and freshman Rachel Myers 10 for BG.

The Huskies (7-10, 3-4 MAC) shot over 55 percent from the field in the first half, building a 36-21 lead at the intermission, and that lead reached a game-high 22 points on a Corral three-pointer with 13:52 to go. But, the Falcons came roaring back.

Trailing, 50-28, BGSU proceeded to score the game's next 17 points, getting within five points on a layup by redshirt freshman Kennedy Kirkpatrick with 7:03 remaining. A driving layup by Corral, however, stopped the Falcons' run, and began an 11-0 NIU run that gave the hosts a 61-45 lead with 3:35 on the clock.

"We shot only 28 percent in the first half, and could not have been any colder," said BGSU head coach Jennifer Roos. "But, a lot of that was due to Northern, and they were the exact opposite; they were white-hot.

"We wanted to give a better and a more concerted effort at both ends of the floor in the second half, and I thought we did that. We had a chance to cut their lead to four points with seven minutes to go, and I'm pleased with that effort. They were able to make a run of their own, and their senior All-MAC player, Amanda Corral, led that run. We wanted to contain her, but that kid could not be contained tonight. She's a very determined scorer, and she stepped up tonight.

Not surprisingly, Corral scored the first points of the game, and NIU took a 4-0 lead before Hoekstra cut that lead in half, hitting a spinning one-hand shot in the lane as she was knocked to the ground. Renee Sladek's second-chance layup, though, gave the hosts a 9-2 advantage with just under four minutes gone.

Justinger took a pass from sophomore Rachel Konieczki and hit a three-pointer, but Corral answered with a long triple. Kirkpatrick was fouled on a drive and knocked down a pair of free-throw tries, cutting BG's deficit to 12-7, but Corral hit a pull-up jumper with the shot clock winding down.

Moments later, Kirkpatrick's three-point try from the left wing was on target, making it a 17-10 game, but the Huskies scored the next eight points. Corral hit back-to-back jumpers, Kelly Smith got an offensive board and made a layup, and Ally Lehman scored inside for a 25-10 NIU lead.

Justinger threw the ball inside to freshman Sarah Baer for a layup, but the Huskies answered with a layup. Senior Erica Fullenkamp, however, drove and knocked down a contested shot late in a BG possession, and after the Falcons forced a miss, Myers was fouled and made a pair of free throws with 3:16 left in the half.

Corral scored on a pull-up jumper, but Hoekstra drilled a catch-and-shoot three-pointer to cut the Falcons' deficit to 10 points at 29-19. But, the Huskies scored seven of the last nine points of the half, with Justinger's long two-pointer the visitors' only points in the final two-and-a-half minutes, and NIU took a 36-21 lead at the half.

The second half began with the Huskies hitting shots on the first two possessions. After Smith hit a layup, Myers lobbed the ball inside to Justinger for a three-point play. But, Corral's corner three gave NIU a 41-24 lead, and she scored inside on NIU's next trip down the floor.

When Sladek muscled her way inside for a layup, the lead exceeded 20 points for the first time. Hoekstra made a layup, and Justinger sank two free throws, but Jenna Thorp's jumper was followed by a Corral trey, and the home team had a 50-28 lead. But, a game that was seemingly over was actually far from it.

The start to BGSU's 17-0 run seemed innocent enough. Hoekstra got an offensive rebound and was fouled with 13:17 remaining, and the senior made a pair of free throws. BG forced a miss, and Konieczki drove and kicked the ball to Justinger for a three-pointer from the left side. Northern's lead was 50-33 with 12:39 to go.

After several scoreless possessions at both ends of the floor, Justinger stole the ball from Corral, and found Hoekstra in transition. Hoekstra whipped a pass to a trailing Myers, who drained a three-pointer from the right side.

The Falcons forced another miss, and on BG's next trip downcourt, Haley Puk drove the left baseline and fired a pass to Myers in the far corner. The freshman's three-point try found nothing but net, and the Falcons trailed by 11 points with 10:33 left.

Moments later, a Kirkpatrick steal led to a pull-up jumper by Myers -- Myers' seventh- and eighth-straight points of the game -- and BG was within nine. Corral missed a jumper, Hoekstra scored on a jumper, and the NIU lead was down to seven, 50-43, as the Huskies burnt a timeout with 7:27 on the clock.

On the next possession, however, Thorp missed a shot inside, and Kirkpatrick converted a layup while drawing Lehman's fourth foul of the game with 7:03 left. BG was within five points. Kirkpatrick's free-throw try was no good, and Corral hit a driving layup to snap that 17-0 Falcon run.

After Corral's layup, neither team scored for nearly two minutes, before Smith's putback gave the Huskies a 54-45 lead. A BG shot would not drop, and Smith's three-pointer gave the hosts a double-digit lead with 4:35 to go. Corral's steal and layup made it a 59-45 game, and the Falcons could not get closer than 13 points the rest of the way.

The Huskies shot 48.2% for the game, while holding the Falcons to a 34.0% field-goal rate. BGSU made six three-pointers, with Myers and Justinger hitting two apiece, but the Brown and Orange shot just 26.1% (6-of-23) from beyond the arc. By contrast, NIU went 5-of-11 (45.5%) from three-point land.

Smith had a double-double for the hosts, with 15 points and a game-high 13 rebounds as the Huskies had a 45-20 advantage on the glass. Lehman and Sladek each had eight points and eight boards.

Kirkpatrick had seven points off the bench for the Falcons.

The Falcons return home for the next two games, beginning with a Saturday (Jan. 31) contest vs. the arch-rival University of Toledo. Tipoff for that game, the first half of a doubleheader at the Stroh Center, is set for 4:00 p.m.