The BG women’s basketball team will return to action this Thursday, following a poor defensive effort on Sunday against Miami.
BG has done well coming off losses this season, and has not lost back-to-back games since early November when they fell to Purdue and Villanova. In fact, in a recent seven game stretch they followed up each of their losses with consecutive wins.
The Falcons look to start a winning streak as they have three favorable games to close out the regular season. The Falcons final three games are against teams that are in the bottom three of the Mid American Conference East.
Ohio and Kent State both have just one win in the conference. This Thursday, the Falcons will welcome the Buffalo Bulls to the Stroh. The Bulls have a better record than Ohio and Kent and are one game above .500 at 7-6 in the conference.
For BG, the challenge Buffalo poses is something they have already seen. The Falcons defeated the Bulls in Buffalo 61-56 back at the beginning of February.
As the score shows, the game was one that took a lot for the Falcons to win. The game was within 10 points for most of the time, and the Bulls even cut the margin to three with more than minute to play.
Yet it was a game that would come down to clutch free throw shooting from the Falcons to which they did not disappoint. Redshirt junior Danielle Havel, junior Jillian Halfhill and freshman Bailey Cairndruff would each hit big free throws down the stretch to help lead the Falcons to victory.
The loss to Miami gave the Falcons their second loss of the year when reaching the 60- point barrier.
This was mostly due to the RedHawks shooting more than 50 percent from the field. The Falcons’ defense struggled, as Miami guard Courtney Osborn of Miami scored 33 points while shooting 77 percent from the three-point line.
Buffalo has three players that BG will need to account for. Forward Cherridy Thornton and freshman Mackenzie Loesing each score more than 10 points per game. There is also Buffalo’s Center, Christa Baccas, who ranks third in the conference in rebounding and leads the conference in blocked shots.
In their last game, it was Loesing who led the way for Buffalo with 20 points on 7-13 shooting. Loesing’s 20 points led all scorers as not one player for the Falcons scored in double-digits.
