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Toledo's Yolanda Richardson shoots over Bowling Green's Alexis Rogers. Richardson carried the Rockets in the second half by scoring 10 points. Toledo has beaten BG three straight years.
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Rockets win after trailing by 14

The Blade/Jetta Fraser

Rockets win after trailing by 14

Some opponents of the University of Toledo have defended center Yolanda Richardson one-on-one, and in most cases, she's torched them. Others have double-teamed her, letting sharp-shooting Courtney Ingersoll inflict damage.

Bowling Green State University coach Curt Miller is of the second school of thought, believing giving up two-pointers to Richardson is better than allowing Ingersoll to settle in from beyond the arc.

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His gamble paid off Saturday, and then it didn't. After being held scoreless in the first half, UT's inside-outside duo produced one big play after another to propel the Rockets to a 52-50 win in front of a crowd of 5,131 at Savage Arena.

Richardson made two layups as part of an 8-0 run to start the second half, and Ingersoll shined at the end when she snapped out of a scoreless slump by nailing a 3-pointer to punctuate UT's comeback with 1:08 remaining. Ingersoll was as equally heroic on BG's final offensive possession when she harassed guard Chrissy Steffen into trying a next-to-impossible shot with one hand.

The Rockets won despite trailing 31-17 with 2:53 remaining in the opening half.

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"We played intimidated in the first half," Ingersoll said. "We weren't executing well. We weren't hitting shots, so we kind of backed down. In the second half, we went into Yo, and Yo established herself."

The Rockets also got a big boost from Andola Dortch, who led the team with 16 points.

With the win, UT (16-7, 9-2) has beaten its rival to the south in three straight regular seasons for the first time since 1998-2000. Moreover, UT has closed the gap to one game behind BG for the lead in the Mid-American Conference.

For the Falcons (20-4, 10-1), their 13-game win streak comes to an end, but with Miami's loss to Northern Illinois, they still lead the East division by three games.

BG played a brilliant first half, in which Steffen said she and her teammates used a "cannon effect" to accelerate to a 13-point lead at the break. Steffen had 16 points at halftime, two more than her season average, and Danielle Havel prevented Richardson from getting solid footing in the lane. Three UT starters -- Richardson, Ingersoll, and Lecretia Smith -- did not score in the half.

"I feel like in their home arena, they were expecting to get out on us big, but we kind of surprised them and put them on their toes," said Steffen, who finished with 20 points.

For whatever reason, the Rockets have begun a handful of games slowly during their current eight-game win streak. As was the case with the others, they came out with new energy after halftime, ripping off eight straight points to trim their deficit to five. Richardon's two quick buckets came with Havel defending her, prompting BG coach Curt Miller to summon the more athletic Alexis Rogers to guard Richardson. By that point, Richardson had developed a rhythm, and it didn't matter much who was checking her. She knocked down a short jumper to cut the lead to 37-32 with about 14 minutes left and later poured in two buckets to close the gap to four with the five-minute mark approaching.

Miller said he refused to send a second defender at Richardson and pave the way for UT's shooters -- namely Ingersoll, the MAC West player of the week, and Haylie Linn -- to go berserk.

"The one thing we knew is Yolanda's points are twos and a lot of times, Courtney's and Haylie's are 3s," Miller said. "I'm not a brilliant person, but I'd rather them score twos than threes."

Ingersoll's only 3 of the game, and in fact her only field goal, was, as Miller described, "a back-breaker." With Richardson handling the ball in the lane, Smith set a screen to free Ingersoll, who curled to the top of the key, caught the pass, and fired a 3 that gave UT a 51-50 lead -- its first since 2-0.

Cullop joked that because UT botched the same play call about a minute earlier, "maybe that's why it wasn't guarded correctly. They thought we'd run that other thing."

That 3-pointer, along with the nine BG took and missed in the second half, was the Falcons' undoing. Miller thought his team was one or two makes from delivering a knockout punch, like when Jasmine Matthews, who guarded Ingersoll all day, misfired from deep when the Falcons were up six points with about four minutes to go. Instead of the Falcons delivering that final blow, Ingersoll left them staggering in this rivalry. Again.

"Man, we do a good job on her the entire game, but that's what seniors do," Miller said. "One mistake after 39 minutes, and her 3 was a back-breaker."

Contact Ryan Autullo at: rautullo@theblade.com, 419-724-6160 or on Twitter @RyanAutullo.

First Published February 12, 2012, 5:20 a.m.

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Toledo's Yolanda Richardson shoots over Bowling Green's Alexis Rogers. Richardson carried the Rockets in the second half by scoring 10 points. Toledo has beaten BG three straight years.  (The Blade/Jetta Fraser)  Buy Image
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