The Bowling Green State University womens basketball team found themselves on the wrong side of a Mid-American Conference thriller this past Saturday, losing on the road to Central Michigan 76-75. CMU’s Presley Hudson converted on a layup attempt at the buzzer to drop the Falcons to 8-11 on the season and to 4-6 in conference play.
The Falcons took Central Michigan (15-7, 9-2 in conference), the number one team in the MAC West Division and second best in the conference, down to the wire on the back of hot shooting. BG made a record 16 three-pointers as a team, and led by 12 with 6:32 left in the fourth quarter.
“First of all, I’m proud of our team. It was an unbelievable women’s basketball game,” head coach Jennifer Roos said. “This is a team that’s playing well, and we came in and gave them the best game of anybody at McGuirk Arena in the conference. I’m proud of the effort, proud of our kids’ tenacity and we’re getting better with every game.”
Sophomore guard Rachel Myers led the Falcons with a career high 24 points, drilling seven three-pointers on the night. Senior Miriam Justinger went 4-4 from behind the arc and scored 13 points for the Falcons, while senior Lauren Tibbs scored 14 points and sophomore Hayley Puk scored a career-high 13 points.
BG got off to a fast start, pulling to an early 8-2 lead after a layup by Tibbs and two three-pointers by Sydney Lambert. CMU missed their first eight shots of the game and fell to an early 17-11 deficit by the end of the first quarter.
The Falcons then pulled to their biggest lead of the day in the second quarter after Myers hit back to back threes to make the score 32-17. But CMU closed the half on a 19-6 run to pull within 38-36 as the halftime buzzer sounded.
The third quarter saw BG go 6-7 from three-point range, with Myers, Justinger, and Puk all finding the bottom of the net from long distance. The hot shooting pushed the Falcons ahead 64-55 heading into the fourth quarter.
After a layup by Tibbs and a three by Myers, Tibbs connected on a mid-range jump shot to put BG ahead by 12 with 6:32 left to play. CMU however used a 15-1 run to take a 74-71 lead with 1:03 left to play.
Both Justinger and Myers split pairs of free throws to tie the game with 46 seconds left to play, and Ashley Tunstall connected on the second of two free throws with 6 seconds left to give BG a 75-74 lead.
After taking a timeout, CMU advanced the ball to midcourt. BG intentionally fouled the Chippewas twice in a row to push its team total to 4, but Hudson broke free, drove down the left side of the lane and banked in a layup as time expired to seal the win for CMU.
While the Falcons made 16 threes, they also did so with great accuracy, shooting 59.3% from behind the arc and 50.9% from the field for the game. The Falcons were in control of the lead for 37:15 of game time as well.
While they were an astounding 15-22 from three-point range through the first three quarters, the Falcons were outrebounded 31-24 by CMU while also only shooting 5-11 from the foul line. The Chippewas shot 54.9 percent from the field for the game and 57.1 percent from three-point range.
“Both teams shot over fifty percent from the field, over fifty-five percent from the arc. It’s a game that we played well enough to win, but unfortunately came up short,” Roos said. “We had the lead there late in the game after leading most of the game. Credit Central Michigan. They made some big shots when it counted.”
The Falcons will return to the Stroh Center on Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. for a matchup with Western Michigan, kicking off a three-game home stand. They will then take on the University of Buffalo on Feb. 13, and welcome rival Toledo on Feb. 17.
