BG claims MAC East crown
Rogers scores 21 to lead Falcons past RedHawks
3/5/2014OXFORD, Ohio — The Bowling Green State University women’s basketball team claimed an outright Mid-American Conference East Division title with a 73-56 victory Wednesday at Miami.
The Falcons (26-3, 16-1) overcame an extremely slow offensive start to earn their 12th consecutive win.
A victory in the regular-season finale Saturday at Akron would give BG at least a share of MAC regular-season title which is awarded to the team with the best record in either division. Central Michigan leads the East with the same record.
Alexis Rogers of nearby West Chester, Ohio, finished with 21 points and six steals to lead Bowling Green, while Jillian Halfhill and Deborah Hoekstra each added 15 points.
Hannah Robertson scored 19 points but was the only player in double figures for Miami (7-21, 3-14).
The Falcons scored only three points in the game’s first 10 minutes and trailed 12-3. But BG used a 22-8 run in the final eight minutes of the half, fueled by eight points by Rogers in the final 1:45 of the period, to lead 30-24 at the break.
The RedHawks were able to cut Bowling Green’s lead to 38-34 with 15:05 to play in the second half before a 3-pointer by Hoekstra stopped the run. The Falcons led 48-41 with 10:11 on the clock before a basket by Jill Stein started a 6-0 run that pushed the lead to double digits.
Miami was able to come no closer than nine points the rest of the way as BG made 10 of its last 11 free throws. The Falcons made 21-of-24 free throws in the contest (87.5 percent).
Bowling Green made 21-of-59 shots from the field (35.6 percent), including 10-of-37 3-pointers (27 percent), but the RedHawks connected on just 22-of-64 shots (34.4 percent) and 5-of-29 3’s (17.2 percent).
Miami outrebounded the Falcons 47-35 thanks in part to 19 offensive rebounds, but the RedHawks turned the ball over 17 times, compared to nine for BG, and those 17 turnovers led to 24 points for the Falcons.