Falcons’ 19-game win streak vs. Zips snapped

2/1/2013

AKRON — The Bowling Green State University women’s basketball team saw a 19-game winning streak against Akron snap as the Zips won 68-63 at JAR Arena Thursday.

The Falcons and Akron are both 13-7 overall and 4-3 in the Mid-American Conference.

Chrissy Steffen finished with 19 points to lead BG, while Alexis Rogers and Jillian Halfhill each scored 11, and Danielle Havel added 10.

Hanna Luburgh led Akron with a game-high 25 points and also had 15 rebounds, while Rachel Tecca scored 18 points, and Sina King added 15.

The Falcons jumped out to a 10-2 lead in the first five minutes and led by as many as nine late in the first period before settling on a 36-32 halftime advantage.

BG did most of its damage with 3-pointers, hitting six of their first eight with Steffen connecting on three 3’s in the first half.

The Falcons then scored the first five points of the second half to lead 41-32 with 18:07 left, but Luburgh scored six as part of a 12-point Akron run that gave it at 42-41 lead with 14:01 still to play.

The Zips stretched their lead to eight points at one point, but a pair of free throws by Miriam Justinger cut BG’s deficit to 62-60 with 1:10 to play.

Akron made four straight free throws, but a 3-pointer by Havel cut the Falcons’ deficit to 66-63 with 14 seconds left. Tecca then missed both free throws, but Halfhill’s potential game-tying 3-pointer was off the mark.

Tecca was fouled and made both free throws to set the final margin.