The BG women’s basketball team dominated Miami University 91-45 on Sunday, Feb. 9 in front of a large home crowd of 2,901.
Falcon fans flocked to the Stroh Center to honor BG scoring leading Lauren Prochaska with a bobble head giveaway and to see the beheading of Freddie and Frieda at halftime.
With the win, the Falcons improve to 20-3 overall and 10-1 in the Mid-American Conference. The RedHawks drop to 7-15 overall and 3-8 in conference play.
The Falcons got off to an early 21-0 run against the RedHawks, with Miami’s next basket coming at the 7:05 after their opening three-pointer. Later in that very half, the Falcons went on another run, this time going 16-0 on the RedHawks, to accumulate a commanding 43-9 lead at the half.
BG finished 29-of-55 from the field, 52.7 percent, and made 15 three-pointers on the day. The Falcons went 48.4 percent from behind the arc, compared to the Redhawk’s 7-of-25, 28 percent effort. Miami went 14-of-44 for 31.8 percent from the field.
Senior Jillian Halfhill finished with a game-high 17 points for the Falcons. Redshirt sophomore Erica Donovan finished with 14 and junior Jasmine Matthews totaled 13. Sophomore Miriam Justinger added 12 for the Falcons.
Justinger said that her team’s defensive success came from their heavy scouting that allowed them to know the offense that Miami was running.
“We could tell in the locker room even before we came out that we were ready to go,” Justinger said. “We knew it was going to be a good crowd, it always is, they’re always there, our sixth man. We want to play well for them and they bring just as much energy as we try to from the bench and on the floor.”
Head coach Jennifer Roos said that her team came into Sunday’s game extremely motivated with all of the events happening at the Stroh during their game.
“It was a really exciting day,” Roos said. “There was just a fervor in the air with Lauren being back, with the beheadings that happened, that’s a BG tradition that has been long standing, and being a double-header day.”
Roos said that she was proud of how hard her team played. She added that the team was able to be so successful on both offense and defense because playing well on one end becomes contagious on the other end of the floor. Roos said that the large crowd was able to disrupt the momentum of Miami, as well.
“Our kids, as we were announcing the lineups before the game started, they could feel it. You could hear the noise of the crowd even in the locker room. This was an atmosphere that truly, truly resembled Anderson Arena.
Up next, the Falcons will travel to Eastern Michigan on Feb. 15. Tipoff in Ypsilanti is set for 4:30 p.m.
