Marshall University Athletics
Herd Women's Streak Stopped at BGSU
2/24/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Herd Women's Streak Stopped at BGSU
2/24/2005
- Box Score
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio ? Bowling Green dominated play on the glass to hand the Marshall women?s basketball team its first loss in a month and a half, snapping its 12-game win streak, with a 73-62 win on Wednesday at Anderson Arena. The win pulls the Falcons even with the Thundering Herd at 11-3 in the Mid-American Conference and gives BGSU the inside track to the No. 1 seed in the upcoming league tournament.
Bowling Green (18-7) out-muscled Marshall (17-8) in the paint by grabbing 22 offensive rebounds, nine by sophomore Liz Honegger, for an overall 48-33 advantage. Freshman guard Kate Achter scored a career-high 27 points while sophomore Ali Mann tied her career-high with 16 rebounds to go along with 19 points.
Achter went 13-of-14 from the free-throw line, aided by six straight made free throws with the clock stopped at 39 seconds in the second half. With the Herd down nine points and well into the double-bonus, Kim Griffin (Valdosta, Ga.) fouled Achter while Sikeetha Shepard-Hall (Houston, Texas) was called for her second technical foul. The officials also slapped Marshall head coach Royce Chadwick with a technical, sending Achter to the charity stripe for a short breather.
BGSU paraded to the free-throw line 35 times, converting 26, while Marshall went 13-for-21. The Herd committed 28 fouls to 17 Falcon fouls, 17-9 in the second half.
Marshall, down five at halftime, came out of the break to score four unanswered points to prompt BGSU head coach Curt Miller to call a timeout. Moments later, at 16:37, Shepard-Hall gave the Herd its first lead of the game with a 3-pointer to go up 35-34. The teams traded one-point leads for the next four minutes before the Falcons began to methodically balloon their lead with the help of a 16-4 run.
The Herd was down 62-49 with 5:29 remaining but crept to within striking distance after BGSU briefly went cold from the floor. A Shepard-Hall three-point play at 3:16 brought MU to within six points. Crystal Champion (Washington, D.C.) stole the ball to give the Herd a chance to inch closer, but two missed jumpers on the possession wasted the opportunity, all but ending Marshall?s chances of a comeback road win.
BGSU received only two points from its bench, but three Falcon starters (Achter, Mann and Honegger) out-scored the entire Marshall team themselves. The Herd reserves scored 22 points, led by 14 from sophomore Teyonka Hodge (Washington, D.C.).
The Falcons jumped on Marshall early, going up 12-2 just over four and a half minutes into the contest. BGSU maintained a double-digit lead for much of the half until the Herd closed to within five points thanks to an 8-2 run to end the frame.
Shepard-Hall led Marshall with 16 points and Griffin added 11. Center Modupe Ishola (Washington, D.C.) grabbed a team-high eight rebounds and added three blocks.
Both teams sunk 23 field goals and the Herd shot 41.1 percent from the floor to BGSU?s 35.4 percent, but the free throw differential ultimately doomed MU and ended its longest win streak in 33 years.
Kent State?s convincing 35-point win over Ohio on Wednesday night brought the Golden Flashes to within a game of the Herd with two games left in the regular season.
Marshall?s quest for the MAC East Division title gets no easier as it stays on the road for a battle with the defending tournament champion Eagles of Eastern Michigan. EMU ousted the Herd in the conference tournament semifinals last season and defeated Bowling Green on Saturday at the Convocation Center.
Tip-off from Ypsilanti, Mich., is at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.
