In action this past Saturday, the Bowling Green State University women’s basketball team lost to the defending Mid-America Conference champion Ohio Bobcats 57-72. After weathering a tough first start to the first half, the Falcons were downed by a furious run by Ohio in the third quarter.
Freshman Sydney Lambert scored a career high 17 points in the game, while senior Lauren Tibbs scored 15 points and 6 rebounds and sophomore Rachel Myers added 10 points.
“We had a slow start, with the first three possessions ending in turnovers. We scripted the first three plays and couldn’t execute that, so we jumped in a quick hole down seven,” Head Coach Jennifer Roos said. “But our kids rallied, put up a good first quarter down one. Second quarter, even, going into halftime, shooting the ball at almost fifty percent, which is something we talked about.”
The loss was the Falcons’ third conference contest of the season, and drops them to a 1-2 conference record and 5-7 overall. The Bobcats improved to 11-3 overall while staying a perfect 3-0 in conference.
“I think we had a few turnovers early on that put us in a hole at the beginning of the third,” Lambert said. “I mean, I think the turnovers were about the only thing that kind of got us in a big hole. I think we all just want to dig ourselves out of the hole real quick, so we just put up shots early in the offense instead of trying to break down the defense like we should.”
The Bobcats scored the first 9 points to start the game while BG struggled out of the gate, committing a turnover on each of their first three possessions. They were able to battle back though, not committing a turnover for the rest of the first period.
Lambert led the way with three made triples in the first to help the Falcons hold right with Ohio in the first, finishing down 21-20. Both teams then scored 16 points in the second quarter, ending the first half with a 37-36 Ohio lead.
It would prove to be a tale of two halves for the Falcons, who after shooting 46.4% from the field in the first half shot only 26.9% from the field in the second half. They also committed 12 turnovers in the second half.
“The third quarter just kind of got us,” Roos said. “There was a run where we couldn’t get a stop from the six-minute mark to the zero-minute mark of the quarter, and then for the first minute of the fourth quarter.”
Neither team scored for the first two-minutes of the third quarter, until both Myers and Lambert drove to the basket and drew fouls for two free throws each. Myers knocked down both of her attempts at the 6:21 mark, while Lambert hit both of her attempts at the 5:57 mark, giving the Falcons their first lead of the day, 43-42.
However, the Bobcats would close out the rest of the quarter on a 14-0 run, pulling ahead at the end of the period with a lead of 56-43. That run was pushed to 18-0 after the start of the third quarter, giving the Bobcats a lead that they would not relinquish for the rest of the day.
The Falcons will return to action this Wednesday night, January 13, at 7 p.m. against Akron. The match will be the second of a three game home stand for BG, who will then face Ball State on January 16.
