BGSU women move to 3-0 with OT win

MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The Bowling Green State University women’s basketball team saw a 19-point second quarter lead vanish, but still found a way to claim a 64-62 overtime win Thursday against Robert Morris.

Bowling Green's Haley Puk shoots a 3 in a game against Western Michigan last season. The senior scored a career-high 26 points in the Falcons overtime win at Robert Morris Thursday.

Sydney Lambert’s layup with a minute to play in the extra period gave the Falcons the lead for good as they improved to 3-0 on the season by winning the first women’s basketball game played at the Colonials’ new arena, the North Athletic Complex.

Haley Puk scored a career-high 26 points, including 17 in the first half, to lead BG. Lambert finished with 10 points, while Carly Santoro had her third consecutive double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Mikalah Mulrain posted 18 points to lead Robert Morris (0-2), Megan Callahan made four 3-pointers on the way to 16, and Megan Smith added 11 for the Colonials.

Bowling Green dominated the first half of the contest, after a game-opening bucket by Robert Morris, scoring 10 straight points in the game’s first three minutes. The Falcons then used a 7-2 finish to lead 20-8 at the end of the first quarter.

BG used a 10-2 start to the second to lead 30-11 with 6:21 remaining, and Jane Uecker’s basket at the buzzer gave the Falcons a 37-21 halftime lead.

But in the third, the Bowling Green offense struggled, as the Falcons went 1-for-6 from the field and turned the ball over eight times. After Santoro made a free throw at the 6:20 mark, the Colonials scored 12 consecutive points before a free throw by Lambert with two seconds left gave BG a 41-38 margin.

Then when Callahan hit a 3 at the 9:03 mark for the opening points of the fourth, the Falcons’ lead was gone.

Callahan and Honoka Ikematsu made back-to-back 3s that gave Robert Morris a 54-51 advantage with just 1:21 to play, but Santoro hit a free throw with 1:01 left and Andrea Cecil made two clutch free throws with just 18 seconds remaining in regulation to tie the game at 54. The Colonials missed a 3-point attempt to send the game to overtime.

In that extra period there were two ties, the last coming when Mulrain made two free throws with 1:09 to go to tie it at 60. But Lambert made a driving layup with one minute on the clock to give BG the lead for good.

Lambert made a free throw after a Robert Morris miss for a 63-60 BG lead with 27 seconds to go. After a Callahan bucket, Santoro’s free throw with 13 seconds closed the scoring.

The Colonials had one final chance, but Santoro slapped the ball off the leg of Nina Augustin with four seconds remaining to ice the victory.

Bowling Green hosts Canisius at 2 p.m. Sunday.