It was not surprising to see who the two leading scores were for the Bowling Green women’s basketball team in their 69-66 win over Toledo Saturday.

As usual, the Falcons got stellar performances from forwards Liz Honegger and Ali Mann.

Mann led the way for the Falcons, scoring 22 points and pulling down seven boards while Honegger was right behind her with 19 points and six boards.

But it wasn’t easy going in the first half for the two, who only managed a combined 12 points and five rebounds.

“You’ve got to stop those two,” UT head coach Mark Ehlen said. “We did in the first half and didn’t in the second half; And that’s why we lost.”

Mann was a non factor for most of the first half, as she collected two fouls in the first 2:31 of the game.

She was held to three points in the first half, but it was a much different story when she got going in the second half with the game on the line.

At one point, Mann scored nine of the Falcons’ 11 points, the last three of which gave BG a 57-54 lead.

“Sometimes it takes one person to get everyone going,” Mann said. “We started climbing back, point by point, and then we got the lead and started playing a lot harder in the second half.”

Mann played the entire second half without a foul but when overtime rolled around, the sophomore’s luck ran out.

She collected two fouls in 30 seconds and with 2:30 left in overtime, she found herself on the bench.

For the Rockets, that seemed like good news.

“She fouled out and the team started jumping up and down like we won the daggone national championship,” Ehlen said.

Ehlen was not happy with this because his team was nursing a one-point lead and had already seen a 14-point first half and a nine-point second half lead vanish.

For the Falcons, it was time to find a way to score without Mann in the game.

“I think it was a question of what plays to run because we were going to Ali,” BG head coach Curt Miller said. “It was the defense that won the game for us.”

It was actually a combination of some good offense and great defense that lead BG to the win.

The Rockets took their momentum from Mann fouling out to take a 66-62 lead with 1:44 left.

It was time for the second half of the BG duo to take matters into her hands. With 1:17 left, Honegger found herself wide open from the left wing and made the good offensive play the Falcons needed by hitting a three to widdle UT’s lead to one.

It was then time for the big defensive play just 15 seconds later when point guard Tene Lewis stepped into a passing lane and took the ball to the rack to give BG a 67-66 lead they would not relinquish.

“That was huge,” Miller said. “We were down four, and we hit a big relocation three with Liz Honegger.

“Then you step in the passing lane, and just like that the lead is gone.”

Honegger, Mann and the rest of the Falcons will be in action this Wednesday when they take on Miami at Anderson Arena.