Bowling Green womens basketball took on a Northern Illinois team led by 6-foot-3 senior Brooke Stonebraker, and the Falcons beat the Huskies at their own game — scoring in the paint.

The Falcons outscored the Huskies 48-32 in the key and 17-6 off turnovers in routing Northern Illinois, 72-54, in Mid-American Conference action at the Stroh Center Wednesday in front of over 2,400 fans.

The Falcons snap a three-game losing streak and improve to 11-8 overall and 5-4 in the MAC, while Northern Illinois falls to 9-11 and 3-6.

“It’s good to get back in the win column, it’s good to play good basketball, (and) it’s good to see everybody contribute,” Bowling Green State University coach Fred Chmiel said.

“As a whole, I thought our team played a good basketball game. I think we’re capable of that more and we’re going to need that more at Savage Arena (against Toledo Saturday). We’ll prepare and get ready for them.”

Fifth-year senior guard Morgan Sharps led BG with 22 points, including 10 points on two first quarter three-point shots, but eventually 6-0 senior forward Erika Porter starting dictating who owns the paint, scoring 14 points.

Plus, 6-2 senior forward Sophie Dzieken started showing off her skills in the paint, scoring seven points.

“I thought offensively we were very efficient. We let the offense come to us,” Chmiel said.

As a result, BG shot 59% (30-for-51) from the field, including 69% (27-for-39) from inside the arc, something not often seen from this year’s team. On the flip side, they were an untypical cold 25% (3-for-12) from outside the arc.

BG junior guard Amy Velasco did what she does best, nearly unstoppable driving to the basket, scoring eight points, but she also dished out a game-high nine assists.

Freshman guard Paige Kohler is finding her place in the backcourt, too, scoring 10 points with five assists and a team-high six rebounds.

Matter-of-fact, BG is so decimated by injuries, that only nine players dressed, and all nine made contributions playing significant minutes.

Chmiel described it as if the Falcons have their entire “starting five” sitting on the bench, including senior guard Lexi Fleming, who stands with the help of crutches but by her actions appears to be helping coach the team.

However, the game did not start pretty, at least from a defensive perspective. Northern Illinois was 10-for-17 from the field while racking up a 24-18 first quarter lead, so Chmiel had a few choice words for his players.

“I think if you were anywhere below the 20th row you probably heard me — to our efforts on defense, contest, box out, take care of your match-ups — we didn’t come out very well post defensively and we made some changes there,” Chmiel said.

In the second quarter, the Falcons opened on an 18-0 run and held the Huskies to one field goal, outscoring Northern Illinois, 22-2, to take a double digit lead that would not relinquish.

In that second stanza, BG forced seven turnovers, including six steals, three by Sharps. Plus, the Huskies were 1-for-13 from the field.

“Defensively, I thought we did a good job, especially in the second quarter. Anytime you hold a team to two points, especially the way they can shoot the ball, that was a tremendous effort,” Chmiel said.

Sharps said the Falcons realized the game was going to get out of hand if the Huskies’ offense wasn’t shut down.

“I think we knew they were going to cool down and I think our defense really stepped up,” Sharps said. “I think we let them get a lot of baskets that we could have prevented, so I think we fixed that really well in the second quarter.”

As a team, the Falcons forced 15 turnovers — 13 of them were steals, including four each by Sharps and Velasco, three by senior forward Olivia Hill and two by Porter.

The Falcons also outrebounded the Huskies, 33-30, but only after Northern Illinois had a 10-6 advantage after the first quarter, plus the Huskies finished with 13 offensive rebounds to the Falcons’ five. Porter had five caroms and Hill and Velasco had four each for BG.

Getting the most playing time of her career was BGSU sophomore guard Jaci Tubergen, who was 3-for-5 from the field, scoring seven points in 15-plus minutes.

Chmiel said she blended into the team just like she had been playing with them all season.

“We talk about everybody standing in the gap with these injuries and we had some big performances from Jaci and Sophie off the bench,” Chmiel said, adding that both stepped up on both ends of the floor.

“Jaci stepped up huge on the post, limiting touches, Sophie came in and played some big minutes defensively and kind of shut that down,” Chmiel added.

Hill scored three points, sophomore guard Emily Siesel added one point, and Sharps and Dziekan dished out two assists apiece for the Falcons.

For the Huskies, Stonebraker, from Versailles, Ohio, still scored 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting plus she grabbed six rebounds.

Early on, the Falcons also had trouble stopping one of the smallest players on the court, 5-6 senior guard Jayden Marable, but Chmiel credited Velasco with matching up and shutting her down after the first quarter.

Marable finished with 11 points, seven rebounds, two assists, and two steals, but she had scored seven points and grabbed four rebounds during the first quarter.

Northern freshman forward Brooke Blumenfeld scored eight points, senior forward Tara Stauffacher scored six points, and junior guard Sidney McCrea had five points and two assists.

Junior forward Laura Nickel had four points and two assists, senior guard Grace Hunter had two points and four rebounds, senior guard Kortney Drake contributed two points, and senior guard Shannon Blacher added one point for the Huskies.

The Huskies shot 38% (22-for-58) from the field, were 3-for-10 from downtown and 7-for-13 from the line. BG was 9-for-13 from the line and had 14 turnovers.