Whatever was said by women’s basketball coach Curt Miller after BG’s loss to Toledo on Wednesday must have worked.

On Saturday at Anderson Arena, the Falcons dominated Central Michigan, beating them 63-45 and evening their conference record at 2-2.

Forward Francine Miller, who had 15 points and nine rebounds in the win, said Miller and that the coaches gave them plenty of motivation for Saturday’s game.

“We were fired up to come out tonight and were ready to play,” Francine said. “We just didn’t want to make it a game like it was against Toledo.”

Francine said she though BG should have won against Toledo, but couldn’t because they were so dramatically out-rebounded. Against Central Michigan, BG grabbed a total of 34 rebounds, only being out-rebounded by one. Coach Miller said the teams’ goal this week trying to improve it’s rebounding.

“There have been a lot of fiery practices this week with the focus on rebounding,” Miller said. “Rebounding is all about heart and desire, and necessarily how big we are and how physical we are.”

BG got strong rebounding games from both Francine Miller and Lindsay Austin, who had seven rebounds to go along with a team leading 17 points. Austin gave credit to Falcons assistant coach Kevin Eckert for helping her step up her game.

“He told me to play 1-30-40, which means one possession at a time, 30 seconds a possession and 40 minutes a game,” Austin said. “I just had to keep buckling down and playing hard.”

Central Michigan coach Eileen Kleinfelter said she felt her team played well in parts, but wasn’t able to stay in the game.

“Everyone knows we have a very young team, and it was just a matter of time before we got ourselves intimidated out of our game,” Kleinfelter said. “We had some good moments, but couldn’t get things to go our way.”

After being up 28-22 at halftime, BG extended their lead by playing tough defense and getting to the foul line. BG made 18 of twenty free throws, with 18 of those attempts coming in the second half.

Miller said it is very important that BG got to the line in the second half.

“For the second game in a row, we go into halftime without getting to the foul line,” Miller said. “We were more aggressive in the second half … we continued to find ways to get to the foul line, which will be crucial for our success.”

Miller said the team is happy where they are at, but have difficult games ahead. BG will now begin a stretch of conference games where they will likely not be favored to win.

“In the next nine games, with the exception of Central [Michigan], we will be the underdogs,” Miller said. “[We will] be playing our next two games against by far the class of the league right now at Ball State and Western [Michigan].”

BG’s next game will be on the road against Ball State on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Defense gave the Falcons the extra edge they needed to defeat Central Mich

By Daniel Gedney

sports reporter

B-E-A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E! Be aggressive! Be-e aggressive! The BG women’s basketball team took the words of this classic basketball cheer to heart Saturday and came away with a 63-45 victory over Central Michigan.

Forward Francine Miller and guard Lindsay Austin led the stellar defensive effort for the Falcons, combining for nine steals as the Falcons clamped down and took the Chippewas out of their game plan. Central Michigan head coach Eileen Kleinfelter was impressed with the defensive display the Falcons put on.

“The Bowling Green defense we faced today was probably the toughest defense we’ve faced so far in the [Mid-American Conference],” Kleinfelter said.

The Falcons pressured the ball throughout the course of the game, denying the Chippewas from getting the ball down low and forcing them to take outside shots. The outside shots were not falling for the Chippewas on this particular day, as they made only three out of 16 shots from beyond the three point arc.

Saturday’s game was the second-best defensive performance turned in by the Falcons this season, topped only by the 39 points they held Savannah State to on Dec. 22.

Head coach Curt Miller was very pleased with the way his team kept the Chippewas offense in check.

“We wanted to really, really pressure [point guard Lindsay Mecoli] and try to take her out of her game; and I think we did a good job of that. We didn’t get her to always turn over the ball, but we really wanted to have good ball pressure,” Miller said.

The Chippewas were never able to get back into their offensive game plan after the aggressive play of the Falcons defense took them out of it.

“I really feel like we just forgot the playbook, we were so intimidated we just forgot the playbook,” Kleinfelter said.

Coming off a tough loss in Toledo Wednesday, the Falcons showed an intensity that indicated they were determined to get things going in the right direction again.

“We were fired up to come out tonight and we were ready to play, we definitely had a little fire in us,” Francine Miller said.

The game was very tight throughout the first half. The Falcons only took a six point lead into the locker room. The second half was when the Falcons defense really stepped up and shut the Chippewas down. The Chippewas were only able to make three field goals in the first 14 minutes of the half.

Lindsay Austin provided quite a spark to the Falcons on defense, as her constant hustle was a big factor in the Falcons outscoring the Chippewas 16-5 on turnover points. Austin credited assistant coach Kevin Eckert for her performance in Saturday’s game.

“I kind of owe it to coach Kevin, he told me to play 1-30-40,” Austin said. “I owe it to him because he kind of put some fire in me.”