In a battle of Mid-American Conference leaders, the Bowling Green women’s basketball team downed Miami 68-59 last night to earn their first conference home win of the season while grabbing the out-right lead in the MAC.
Carin Horne and Kate Achter lead the Falcons (11-5 ; 4-1 MAC) with 15 points each, while Ali Mann added 13 and Liz Honegger tallied 10 in a game where both teams looked a little sluggish.
A layup by Achter just 2:53 in gave BG a 8-3 lead which they wouldn’t look back from, playing a strong first half and taking a 34-23 lead to half-time.
It was the first time they’ve jumped out to an early lead in three games, as they had to come from behind in their last two games against Eastern Michigan and Toledo.
“It’s a different mind-set when you’re playing with the lead,” head coach Curt Miller said about having the early lead for a change. “We were happy to have the lead, but Miami has been in a ton of close games all year and we knew we’d have to fight all the way to the buzzer to earn this victory.”
It was 15 points off turnovers in the first half that allowed BG to open the score as they lead by as much as 14.
Horne, a big contributor to those points, had four big steals in the half, while Achter lead the scoring with 13.
“Points off turnovers were obvious,” Miami coach Maria Fantanarosa said. “In the first half we had 12 turnovers and six of those were right at the beginning of the game, so there’s your points off turnovers.”
A Honegger three made it 41-27 BG just 2:44 into the second half, but Miami’s backcourt, a concern of BG’s coming in, started to get hot from the outside, allowing the RedHawks (8-7; 2-2 MAC) to climb back in it.
Nicki Motto hit three of her game-high four three pointers in the half, while Cindi Merrill and Amanda Jackson also contributed big points for the RedHawks. Merrill finished with 17 to lead Miami with Jackson adding 14 and Motto 12.
“What got lost in this game is that we did a good job on their big three guards,” Miller said. “Their big three guards took 46 shots on the night and for the most part we did a good job defending them all night.”
Laura Markwood got a layup to cap an 8-1 Miami run with 13:50 left, which cut the Falcon lead to five at 42-37, but that was as close as they’d get. BG would follow with a 10-0 run to stretch the lead to 15 at 52-37 with 10:14 left following a three by Horne, as they’d hold off a late surge by Miami to earn their eighth win in their last nine games.
BG went 22-of-30 from the line on the night, while the RedHawks went 4-of-5.
The Falcons will face Western Michigan on Saturday afternoon as part of the double-header with the men, tip-off at 3 p.m.
