The women’s basketball team lost to University of Central Florida Friday night 59-56 which halted the Falcon’s six game win-streak.
After defeating Colorado State, Butler, Northwestern, Wyoming, Massachusetts and 15th ranked Dayton, the Falcons fell three points short against UCF.
Just a week after beating nationally ranked Dayton, BG was up by 15 points in the early second half before the Knights rallied to erase the deficit.
“Our preparation wasn’t the same as the Dayton game,” said junior guard Chrissy Steffen. “We can’t do that. We need to prepare for every game like it’s a big game.”
With five minutes left to play, the Knights were still down 10 points but held the Falcons without points until the dying seconds of the game, as UCF went on a 15-0 run.
Two consecutives three-pointers against the Falcons late helped result in the loss.
On a late possession, BG had two chances to tie, but missed both attempts and were forced to foul with 28 seconds to play and Knights then made both free-throws.
The following possession saw Falcons Jillian Halfhill and Steffen miss three-point attempts. Just before the buzzer, junior Alexis Rogers also attempted a long three-point shot that went off the mark.
“We definitely let it slip away,” Steffen said. “I’d say our focus just wasn’t there in the end.”
Halfhill had nine points in the contest and eight rebounds. Senior Danielle Havel had eight points of her own.
In the first half, the game was back and forth before the Falcons started to pull away. Difficulty handling the ball led to 12 turnovers between the teams in the first seven minutes. Despite the missteps, BG held a seven point lead at halftime before being outscored by 10 points in the second half.
“Their pressure got to us pretty well,” Steffen said. “They were getting a lot of deflections and getting us to go faster than we wanted to.”
The game concludes the Falcons pre-MAC play and BG will continue its home stand as they welcome Kent State to the Stroh Thursday.
With a 9-4 record against formidable opponents including nationally ranked contenders, the Falcons will look to regroup and start a new win streak in MAC play.
