Francine Miller made one of two free throws with 44 seconds left, and Ohio’s Andrea Johnson missed the potential game winner as time expired as the Bowling Green women’s basketball team defeated the Bobcats 73-72 last night at Anderson Arena.
Miller missed three free throws in the final minute, but the Falcons pressured Johnson enough to force a difficult shot, and it fell well short of the goal for the one-point victory. From the opening tip, the game was a seesaw affair, much like many Ohio-Bowling Green battles of the past years. Ohio owned the biggest
lead of each half, at just six points, and there were 11 ties and 12 lead changes in the game. The Bobcats, though, couldn’t create the look Johnson, who scored 13 points, needed to win the game.
“It was no secret what was going on; they were running a lot of plays for her [Johnson],” BG coach Curt Miller said. “It came down to execution. We talked about not getting beat by a three, and we wanted to make them make a play in traffic. What you hope for as a coach on the last play of the game is that the officials let the players make a play. She had to be able to finish in traffic, and fortunately for us, we
contested her enough.”
Francine scored eight points in the first four minutes, but a porous BG defense kept the Bobcats right in the game, and the teams entered the first media timeout tied at 15. A quick 8-2 run by OU put the ‘Cats ahead by six at 23-17, but BG scored the next seven — five by forward Stefanie Wenzel — to take a 24-23 lead. The rest of the half was back-and-forth, with BG eventually taking a three-point halftime lead on the strength of seven points by Kim Griech and six by Lindsay Austin in the final eight minutes of the half.
The second half featured much of the same back-and-forth action, as OU used a quick 8-0 run six minutes into the half that included two Johnson
threes to lead by five. They extended that lead to six at 60-54 on an Andrea Gay three midway through the second stanza. The key play of the half came with just under five minutes to play, after the Falcons had cut the lead to two. Austin was trapped on the right wing, but split a double team to find Miller at the top of the
key. Miller nailed her third three of the game to give her team a one-point lead.
“We knew coming into the game that they were going to trap ball screens and trap the wings,” Francine said. “Lindsay did a good job of splitting the trap and I hit the three.”
The Bobcats did tie the game at 70 on a Gay layup, but Austin answered with one of her own. OU’s Latreece Bagley tied the game again with just 56 seconds to go, but Miller was fouled and hit one of two for the final margin.
Miller led the Falcons with 20, while Austin added 17 points and 10 assists and Wenzel dropped in 14. Kim Griech had 11. Bagley led OU with 18, while Johnson had 13, Gay 12 and Candace Bates and Kristian
Kirkpatrick 11 apiece.
“It was another hard-fought battle between Ohio and Bowling Green,” OU coach Lynn Bria said. “I thought both teams deserved to win, we fought and played hard.”
Ohio had 23 turnovers in the game, many of which were uncharacteristic, according to Bria.
“It’s very disappointing,” Bria said. “It was disappointing, because I felt like we did a good job of pushing the basketball, but we did some stupid things, like catching the ball and traveling, and not
jump-stopping. … At first, I think the zone bothered us, and I felt we were going too fast. The turnovers were really the difference in the game.
“Bowling Green is so very smart on offense, and they have so many weapons on offense, that you can’t cough up the ball and give them more opportunities on offense, because that’s their strength — that’s what
they do well.”
Francine said the defensive pressure her team was able to put on the Bobcats’ talented backcourt was huge in the game.
“We really focused on their two guards, Johnson and Bates,” Miller said. “We tried to get the ball out of their hands as much as possible. We really picked up our defense in the past two or three games, and we’ve been really happy with the way we’ve played. … We worked all week on getting over ball screens and hedging with the post. We tried to keep [Bates] from shooting behind those screens, because that’s what she does
best.”
