Women split series

The Bowling Green women’s basketball team went into the Brown Tournament with high expecations and came back with mixed results.

And that’s not just because they won one game and lost the other.

The Falcons showed signs of brilliance in both games and had their share of disappointments as well.

The Falcons’ first game on the weekend was a 77-74 loss to Lehigh.

“Lehigh was a disappointing loss for us,” BG head coach Curt Miller said. “We played well enough offensively to win but Lehigh exploited every defensive mistake we made.”

Forward Carin Horne led the way in the loss with 20 points while Liz Honegger, Ali Mann and Kate Achter each scored in double digits.

The game was especially heart-breaking because it was the Falcons’ second close loss of the season. This is rare for a team that thrived late in games last season.

“My hat’s off to them,” Miller said. “We let a close game slip by.”

The Falcons didn’t throw the weekend away though.

They came out with a vengeance in the weekend’s consolation game and rolled past an overmatched Winthrop team to close the weekend out Sunday afternoon. The team won by a hefty 74-52 margin, but it wasn’t exactly what they were looking for.

“When you play a team you believe your’re better than the rallying cry as a coach is to not play down,” Miller said. “We played up a lot of the game but we had times we were down.”

Honegger was a key player for the Falcons once again as she scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds; her effort earned her MAC West player of the week honors.

Megan Thorburn also had a nice showing for BG, scoring 16 points.

And while the win wasn’t the Falcons’ best effort, Miller knows not to get too greedy when it comes to W’s.

“An ugly win is always better than a pretty loss,” he said.

For the Falcons, seeing young players scoring their points is nothing new. They have one of the more talented and youthful teams in the nation and it shows in the numbers.

As of this weekend’s games, sophomores Honegger, Mann, Thorburn and Horne comprise four of the team’s top five scorers while freshman Kate Achter makes up the final piece to the top five scorers for BG.

That youth will be put to the test when they hit New Mexico this coming weekend to take part in the New Mexico Tournament.

Many of the players played in front of the 6,000 fans that attended the MAC title game last year and have seen large crowds. But just one week after playing a consolation game in front of 200 fans, the Falcons will get a taste of the big time in front of what should be at least 10,000 fans in New Mexico.

“We will come out for warmups and there will be 6,500 fans there already,” Miller said. “You can believe 20 years from now that this will be a game our players can tell their children about.”

For the Falcons, it is out with one tournament and right into another. They’re scheduled to take on New Mexico this Friday at 10 p.m.