The battle of I-75 resumed last night as the women’s basketball teams of Bowling Green State University and the University of Toledo met on UT’s home court, Savage Hall. The Rockets of Toledo took this round by handing the Falcons a 70-62 defeat. With the win, the Rockets improved their overall record to 9-5 and their conference record to 2-1. The loss dropped the Falcons to 8-6 overall and 1-2 in conference games.
Falcons head coach Curt Miller was pleased with the way his team played despite the loss.
“I really give our kids credit, we played with a lot of heart and effort and that’s what we talked about. I thought we battled throughout the 40 minutes and, really, I thought at times we outplayed them tonight,” Miller said.
Things started off very positively for the Falcons, as they opened up a 14-4 lead with 14:53 left to play in the first half. The Rockets quickly stemmed the tide of the Falcons momentum with a 10-0 run over the next three minutes to draw even. Guard Lexee McDonnell put the Rockets ahead to stay with 5:52 remaining in the half when she split a pair of foul shots to give UT a 21-20 lead. The Falcons appeared to be building some positive momentum going into the half when back-to-back three point shots by Kim Greich and Francine Miller cut the Falcons deficit to one point at 29-28.
However, the wind was taken out of the Falcons sails when Megan Jerome was whistled for reaching in against Rockets guard Mary Blessing with one second left to play. Blessing split the pair at the line and the Rockets headed into the locker room with a 30-28 halftime lead.
In contrast with the first half, things started off very slowly for the Falcons in the second half. The Rockets outscored them 14-3 in the first six minutes to open up their biggest lead of the game at 44-31.
The Falcons battled back but were never able get any closer than three points. After the last time the Falcons closed the gap to three points at 50-47, the Rockets answered with a 9-0 run to put the Rockets back up by 12. The Falcons were not able to put together any more scoring spurts after that and the Rockets were able to put the finishing touches on an eight point win.
The Falcons were hurt the most by their inability to control the offensive boards. The Rockets out rebounded them 20-4 overall and 13-1 in the second half.
Guard Kim Greich was frustrated with the team’s inability to answer the scoring spurts the Rockets made throughout the game.
“It is frustrating when they make a run, we need to make a run right back at them. We just gotta make those runs as quick as possible. When they make a run, we gotta make a run back at them,” Greich said.
The Rockets were led by forward Tia Davis, who scored 21 points in 34 minutes. Miller was very impressed by the play of Davis.
“I personally want to go out on a limb and say that she’s playing like the MAC Conference player of the year,” Miller said.
Leading the way for the Falcons was point guard Lindsay Austin, who scored 15 points in 35 minutes.
Next up for the Falcons is a home game against Central Michigan this Saturday. Tip off is scheduled for 1 p.m.
