Ball State Holds Off Falcons' Comeback Effort

Saturday, January 6

Bowling Green, OH

2:00 PM ET

Bowling Green State University

8-6, 0-3MAC

Ball State

13-1, 2-1MAC

Ball State

Bowling Green

Caterrion Thompson - Jan 6 2018 v EMU - Larry Clapper photo

Photo by: Larry Clapper

January 06, 2018 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Thompson has career day, Santoro posts yet another double-double

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Caterrion Thompson had a career day, and Carly Santoro posted yet another double-double, but Ball State University used a balanced scoring effort to hold off the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team, 84-73, Saturday afternoon (Jan. 6) at the Stroh Center.

LINKS
BGSU-BSU STATISTICS: PDF
POSTGAME AUDIO: C.Thompson | Coach Roos
POSTGAME VIDEO: C.Thompson | Coach Roos
PHOTO GALLERY: Isaiah Vazquez, BGSU Mkt & Comm

Thompson scored a career-high 21 points, hitting six three-point field goals, while Santoro had 17 points and a game-high 11 rebounds for the Falcons (8-6, 0-3 Mid-American Conference). Thompson set a new career mark for three-pointers made, tying the Stroh Center record in the process.

For Santoro, the double-double was her 10th in 14 games this season to date, and her fourth in as many games.

But, Ball State (13-1, 2-1 MAC) had five players score in double digits, with two others scoring nine points. Carmen Grande had 16 points along with seven assists for the Cardinals, while Moriah Monaco and Jasmin Samz added 14 points apiece.

As a team, the Falcons hit a total of 14 three-pointers, just two shy of the school single-game record. BGSU made at least three triple tries in every quarter on Saturday afternoon.

QUOTING COACH ROOS
"For the second game in a row, we struggled with turning the ball over. We played a great 30 minutes, in my opinion, but we were down double digits after the first quarter. They scored 17 points off of our turnovers in the first half, and that's a pretty big hole to get out of, but we gave it a great effort."

"Credit to Ball State, they've got very balanced scoring and are the highest-ranked team in terms of RPI in the MAC. Again, though, to our kids' credit we battled throughout. There were multiple times where we had a lot of young kids on the court, and they stepped up and produced in crunch time, and that experience will only help us grow."

COACH ROOS POSTGAME INTERVIEW

C.THOMPSON POSTGAME INTERVIEW

FINAL STATISTICS

Sophomore Caterrion Thompson, as mentioned, had a career-high 21 points. She also had a career-best six three-point field goals, tying the arena record, and had a season-high six rebounds. Thompson played 31 minutes, the highest total of her career, off the bench.
Junior Carly Santoro had 17 points and a game-high 11 rebounds, for her fourth double-double in as many games and her 10th in 14 contests this season.
Both Thompson and Santoro had four assists, with Thompson's total representing a career best, and Santoro also had a career-high five steals.
Senior Haley Puk and junior Sydney Lambert each scored eight points, with Puk adding three assists and Lambert recording three steals.
The Falcons had a 38-32 rebounding advantage, and BG had a 14-7 lead in second-chance points.
BGSU shot 40 percent from the field, and the Falcons went 14-for-28 (50%) from three-point range. BG's 14 successful triples fell just one shy of the Stroh Center record and two away from the school record.
BSU shot 49.1% from the field, including an 8-for-20 (40%) effort from long distance.
The Cardinals forced the Falcons into 20 turnovers, and BSU held a 25-19 advantage in points off turnovers.
Carmen Grande had 16 points, along with seven assists and four steals, to lead the Cardinals. Moriah Monaco and Jasmin Samz each had 14 points, while Destiny Washington and Maliah Howard-Bass scored 10 points apiece. Nine of Howard-Bass's 10 points came during a minute-plus span in the first quarter, while Washington scored all 10 of her points in the fourth period.
Frannie Frazier and Oshlynn Brown scored nine points apiece for the visitors.
BGSU had a 31-21 lead in bench scoring.

FIRST-QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

The Falcons' lone lead of the day came in the first minute of the game. After a steal by sophomore Andrea Cecil, junior Carly Santoro hit a jumper. Frannie Frazier responded with a three-point play for the Cardinals, before senior Haley Puk answered with a left-wing three-pointer after an offensive rebound by redshirt freshman Clare Glowniak.
Moments later, junior Sydney Lambert knocked down a three-point try of her own, giving the Brown and Orange an 8-6 lead. But, the Cardinals then went on a 12-0 run, with Maliah Howard-Bass hitting three long-distance shots in a 73-second span. Frazier's second three-point play of the day made it an 18-8 BSU lead.
Sophomore Caterrion Thompson stopped that run by taking a Puk pass and hitting a triple, but Moriah Monaco quickly answered with a long-distance shot at the other end. Monaco's make gave the Cardinals a 10-point lead, and BSU's lead remained 10, at 23-13, after 10 minutes.

SECOND-QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

The Cardinals scored the first seven points of the second quarter, with five coming from point guard Carmen Grande. Oshlynn Brown's layup at the 7:57 mark gave BSU a 30-13 lead, before freshman Sierra Thompson scored inside.
Midway through the quarter, Cecil's three-pointer from the top of the arc cut BG's deficit to 12, and Glowniak, who had fed Cecil for that shot, grabbed a board and hit a putback in traffic to make it a 32-22 game.
BSU responded by scoring eight of the next 11 points. Puk took a Santoro pass and knocked down a second-chance three, but Grande scored four-straight points, with her free throws giving the Cards a 40-25 lead with 2:43 left before the half.
BG battled back to within 11 points on two occasions, on a Lambert pull-up three and a layup by sophomore Jane Uecker. But, after a turnover in the latter stages of the quarter, Grande beat the buzzer with a three-pointer, giving the visitors a 46-32 advantage at the intermission.
Grande scored 14 of her 16 points in the second quarter alone.

THIRD-QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

Monaco opened the second-half scoring with a long-range shot, and after a Santoro bucket, Monaco hit an and-one layup. The ensuing free throw gave the Cardinals an 18-point lead, the largest of the game, with 7:57 on the clock.
After nearly two scoreless minutes of action, the Falcons began to chip away at the Ball State lead. Santoro hit a nifty layup, then grabbed a defensive board, drew a foul and split her shots at the stripe. Santoro had four points and five rebounds in the first five minutes of the period.
Freshman Kennedy Williams drilled a three-point try from the left wing, cutting the Cards' lead to 12, but Jasmin Samz answered almost immediately with a long-range shot of her own.
With 2:24 left on the clock, Caterrion Thompson hit a three-ball from the right wing, and just 43 seconds later, the sophomore knocked down a straightaway trey, cutting BSU's lead to single digits (58-49). But, the Cardinals scored the final four points of the quarter to take a 13-point lead after 30 minutes.

FOURTH-QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

Santoro found Caterrion Thompson for a pair of three-pointers in the first two minutes of the quarter, with the second trey cutting the BSU lead to eight points, 63-55.
But, Destiny Washington hit back-to-back shots to extend the Cards' advantage back into double figures. Before her second bucket in that span, A Cecil three-pointer which would have cut the BSU lead to seven points rattled in and out.
A Glowniak layup at the 5:55 mark cut BG's deficit to 10, and Caterrion Thompson's third triple of the quarter narrowed the gap to 11 with 2:44 left. But, each time BG looked to make a run, Ball State had an answer.
Caterrion Thompson fed Santoro for a pair of late three-pointers, with the second one cutting the deficit to nine points, but BG could draw no closer.

UP NEXT

The Falcons hit the road for the following two games, facing Central Michigan on Wednesday (Jan. 10) and Akron next Saturday (Jan. 13). The CMU contest will begin at 7:00 p.m., while the UA game is slated to begin at 4:30 p.m. The latter game is the second half of a doubleheader which also sees the BGSU men's basketball team take on the Zips that day.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS

For more information on all things BGSU women's basketball, follow the Falcons on Twitter (@BGAthletics and @BGSUwbb), Instagram (@bgsuwbasketball) and Snapchat (BGSU Falcons) as well as on the web right here at BGSUFalcons.com.