After trailing 11-2 with 13:49 to play in the first half, the Bowling Green women’s basketball team struggled to hit everything from the field –until senior BG guard Tene Lewis checked in.
Lewis sparked the Falcons offense, converting on consecutive layups and her free throw at the 9:05 mark gave the Falcons their first lead at 14-13. BG never lost the lead again, blowing out Northern Illinois 80-44 in Anderson Arena last night.
“We realized that we weren’t as aggressive as we should have been,” Lewis said. “Coach wanted me to drive, penetrate and try to create a tempo … get us some points on the board and get us moving.”
Lewis led the Falcons in that pivotal first half with seven points on a perfect 3 of 3 shooting from the field. She played a career-high 28 minutes and finished with nine points, one off her career-high, and had five assists, four rebounds, and two steals.
BG head coach Curt Miller said Lewis provided some much needed energy that got the team off to a big run. Her basket with 6:11 left to go in the first half capped off a 18-2 run and put the Falcons in the drivers seat.
“Tene came in there and really brought that energy and kept the tempo up,” Miller said. “Northern’s so good defensively, we needed to have the game up tempo and she spurred us with that energy and her ability to penetrate.”
But Lewis’s scoring wasn’t the only thing that catapulted the Falcons offense. She dished out five assists in the final 10 minutes of the first half, including a pair of feeds to forward Ali Mann in a 20 second span, extending the lead to 23-13 with 4:27 left in the half.
Lewis also added to the Falcons strong defensive pressure which shut down Stephanie Raymond, the Huskies leading scorer. Raymond came into the game averaging 15.7 points per game, seventh in the MAC, and was held to just three points on 1-of-12 shooting.
“Stephanie Raymond is by far one of the best players in this league,” Miller said. “To hold (her) to one basket is a great individual accomplishment as a team.”
The Falcons held the Huskies to just 27 percent shooting, which marks their best defensive performance of the season.
“Defense is the backbone of this team,” Lewis said. “We pride ourselves on defense and hard work and that’s how we win ball games.”
