When you have not won a conference game on the road all season, you’ll take a win any way you can get it.

The women’s basketball team defeated Akron 65-62 on Saturday, but after the game, BG head coach Curt Miller said he was upset with the Falcons’ finish.

Bowling Green had a 16-point lead at halftime, and had a 19-point lead with 5:38 to go in the game, but had trouble closing out the win.

Miller said the team lost its composure down the stretch.

“I am disappointed with our execution in the last five minutes,” Miller said. “We were trying not to lose it and not playing to win. When you play not to lose is when you let up.”

The Falcons got 20 points from Stefanie Wenzel and 17 from Kim Griech in the win. Francine Miller had one of her most difficult games, going 1-11 from the floor.

Miller said it was one of Francine’s worst games.

“We had good production out of our wings, Stefanie and Kim gave us good production,” Miller said. “Francine’s leadership on the floor was great, and we needed her rebounding, but I can’t ever remember ever seeing her shoot the way she did tonight. To come out with a win tonight is a credit to the other players for stepping up their game.”

Despite her struggles from the floor, Francine was a perfect 8-8 from the free throw line and scored 10 points.

The Falcons led 31-15 at halftime, and were able to keep a double-digit lead over Akron for most of the second half.

But trailing 58-39 with under six minutes left, the Zips came back late with a strong shooting performance. Akron shot 15 of 27 in the second half, and was able to climb back into the game in the final minutes.

A three-pointer by Akron’s Dominique Harris started a 12-0 run for the Zips. Suddenly, the Falcons lead was down to 58-51 with 2:07 to go.

The Zips cut the lead to two with 27 seconds remaining, but clutch foul shooting by the Falcons helped to secure the win, as they went 5-6 in the last 34 seconds from the line.

Miller talked earlier in the week about containing center Cassandra Martin, the Zips’ top player. Martin was held to 13 points and four rebounds.

Miller was pleased with the Falcons ability to contain Martin. “We did a good job on Martin,” Miller said. “We had people around her the whole game and executed our game plan and doubled her a lot. I am really proud of our kids, because Martin was a kid that created a ton of matchup problems for us.”

With the win, the Falcons moved to 4-9 in the Mid-American Conference, and 11-13 overall. Akron dropped to 1-12 in the MAC and 2-21 overall.