BG women’s basketball failed to put a complete game together en route to its 53-42 loss to Villanova on Saturday. BG was competing in the Lady Rebel Round up tournament at UNLV.
The Falcons were good defensively, out-rebounding the Wildcats by a margin of 43-34, but they lacked on the offensive end by not shooting the ball well. BG only had one player putting up double figures, and that was junior Jillian Halfhill with 15.
The Falcons shot just 24.1 percent for the game and had to endure long scoring droughts Villanova was able to capitalize on. BG was scoreless for the first four and a half minutes until freshman Bailey Cairndruff found Halfhill for a lay-up at the 15:29 mark of the first half.
The Falcons also went on a drought to close the half too, as they made their last bucket of the half, as Jasmine Matthews threw with 6:27 left in the first half. It was those long scoring droughts, coupled with a stellar performance by Villanova’s Laura Sweeney that made it hard for BG to get ahead.
Although Villanova shot just 37.3 percent for the game. Sweeney had 16 points on 8 of 12 shooting.
The Falcons were able to get some well-needed playing time to sophomore’s Jasmine Matthews and Deborah Hoekstra.
Mathews scored the Falcons’ first points while Hoekstra was given some well-deserved minutes. In her first action of the season, Hoekstra the sophomore from East Lansing put up three points on 1-2 shooting with one free throw. She played just 11 minutes, but in that time she made some good plays and even gave an assist to Halfhill, who knocked down a three pointer.
In the second half, the Falcons never really got close. After two free throws by Danielle Havel, the Falcons trailed 49-36 with just 5:28 remaining in the ball game. After a steal and a three-pointer by Halfhill, BG trailed by seven with 1:01 to go.
Yet the Falcons could not muster up enough late-game heroics and fell to the Wildcats by 11. The Falcons did win its consolation game on Sunday, beating UNLV by 10, 64-54.
