BUFFALO, N.Y. – A big third quarter by Buffalo was too much for the Bowling Green State University women’s basketball team to overcome on Saturday as the Bulls picked up an 81-62 win over the Falcons at Alumni Arena.
BGSU senior Kadie Hempfling had 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting for the Falcons (15-14, 10-10 MAC), while sophomore Nyla Hampton scored 12 points and tied for game honors with four steals.
Hempfling added six rebounds and three assists and fifth-year senior guard Madisen Parker hit three shots from the arc and scored nine points.
BGSU junior guard Elissa Brett had eight points and six boards, and sophomore guard Morgan Sharps scored six points on the day.
Freshman guard Jocelyn Tate had five points, five rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals.
BGSU 6-0 sophomore forward Olivia Hill had career-high totals of three assists and two steals against the Bulls, and also scored two points and grabbed a pair of offensive rebounds.
The Bulls (22-8, 16-4 MAC) got a game-high 20 points from Georgia Woolley, while Summer Hemphill had 18 points and a game-best 12 rebounds.
The Falcons never led, but after UB began the game on a 10-0 run, BGSU answered with a nine-point surge.
BGSU held the Bulls to just 13 second-quarter points, and BG tied the game on senior Madisen Parker’s three-pointer at the halftime buzzer, tying the score at 35-all as the teams headed into the intermission.
But UB held the Falcons scoreless for the first five minutes of the second half, scoring the first 11 points of the third quarter to take control.
Neither team scored for over a minute to begin the second half, but Georgia Woolley’s layup with just over a minute gone gave the Bulls the lead and began an 11-0 run.
BGSU would not score until Hampton’s three-point play that bridged the 4:47 media timeout. The sophomore’s free throw cut the deficit to eight points, but that was as close as BG would get the rest of the way.
The Bulls shot 44.6% from the field to the Falcons’ 36.7%.
BGSU went 10-of-24 from the arc while holding UB to just a 2-for-13 long-range effort, but the Bulls had a 47-30 rebounding advantage and a 22-15 lead in second-chance points.
The Falcons will be the number-six seed for the MAC Tournament, and BGSU will take on third-seeded Akron (16-10, 13-7) in quarterfinal-round action on Wednesday (March 9).
In two MAC regular season contests, Akron defeated BGSU twice, 79-69 and 72-70, but the second time was on a last second field goal.
The MAC Tournament begins on Wednesday (March 9) with four quarterfinal-round games at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in downtown Cleveland.
The first game of the day begins at 11:00 a.m., with each subsequent game scheduled to begin 30 minutes after the conclusion of the previous game. The BGSU-Akron contest is the final game of the day, and tentatively should start at approx. 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday’s four survivors will advance to Friday’s (March 11) semifinal round. Should BGSU get past Akron, the Falcons would face either second-seeded Buffalo or number-seven Western Michigan in a 12:30 p.m. tip on Friday.
All quarterfinal and semifinal games are scheduled to be streamed on ESPN Plus.
