| BG’s Jillian Halfhill (11) looks to shoot over Ohio’s Tenishia Benson. (Photo: Andrew Weber/Sentinel-Tribune) |
Tracy Pontius hasn’t been herself for at least a month as she fights through a knee problem.
She had scored in double figures just once in the last eight games before Wednesday night’s contest with
Ohio.
Against the Bobcats, Pontius drained a 3-pointer just 40 seconds into the game.
With the added confidence of making her first shot and a one-on-one pep talk from head coach Curt Miller,
Pontius had a little more hop in her step and she finished with 17 points to help the Falcons post a
77-63 victory. BG is now 21-4 overall and the leader in the Mid-American Conference East at 9-3.
“It did give me a little confidence back,” Pontius said about making her first shot.
“I’m basically batting through the aches and pains right now and just give it all I got because it’s my
senior season and I want to go out on a good note,” Pontius added.
Pontius finished 6-of-7 from the field, including 4-of-5 on threes, and 1-of-2 from the free-throw line,
and added four assists while playing 23 minutes.
“It was great to see Tracy play well again,” Miller said. “You saw a little bit more of a spark in her
tonight.
“This has nothing to do with it, but we had a one-on-one to basically to pump her back up and to explain
the five teams in the East and how and why we believe she can be successful down the stretch,” Miller
added. “I think she just needed a little pep talk.”
Chrissy Steffen led the way for the Falcons with a career-high 22 points. She was 8-of-13 from the field,
including 4-of-7 on threes, and 2-of-2 from the line.
“She’s a very, very good shooter, but sometimes reluctant to take contested shots. Once she got in a
rhythm, she took some shots with people running at her and what would be contested and she made those,”
Miller said. “Also she had some nice finishes going to the rim.”
The Falcons needed the scoring of Steffen and Pontius as Lauren Prochaska, the school’s all-time scoring
leader, was held without a field goal and finished with seven points on a 7-of-8 effort from the
free-throw line. She played 34 minutes.
It was the first time in her 127-game Falcon career that Prochaska did not convert a field goal. There
have been three games in her career where she made just one field goal, most recently Jan. 29 at Western
Michigan.
“I think she was hurting more tonight than she was up at Eastern (Michigan, last Saturday) and so she
deferred a little bit. But her teammates were having a good night and that’s the kind of player she is,
she’s not worried about her numbers,” Miller said about Prochaska. “She was going to get the ball to
other people and sometimes act as a decoy.”
Bowling Green also benefitted from a seniors meeting with the coaches.
“(We) talked about the sense of urgency that they needed to show to the rest of the team,” Miller said.
“They were more vocal than they typically are.”
“We’re out there playing for them to make their senior season end how they want to,” Steffen, a
sophomore, said about BG’s six seniors. “I could tell they had even more enthusiasm and they just really
want us to step up for the end of the year.”
The Falcons held a 31-27 halftime lead and then blew the game open in the second half, leading by 23
points before Miller cleared the bench.
Bowling Green out-scored Ohio 23-7 in the first 7:29 of the second half to really take away any doubt.
Pontius had nine points and three assists in the run, Steffen hit two threes and Jen Uhl contributed
four points and an assist.
All seven of BG’s field goals in the early second-spurt came on assists.
“It was a very, very good second half by our core group,” Miller said.
BG finished the game with 20 assists on 26 field goals with eight different players having at least one
assist.
“A two-to-one assist to turnover-ratio for us is a big, big stat line,” Miller said.
The Falcons did a good job of attacking Ohio’s zone defense and later its man-to-man.
“We did a tremendous job getting inside-outside catches,” Miller said about BG’s offense. “In the second
half we executed and made some threes (5-of-6). It was all about ball movement and making their zone
shift.”
NOTES: Ohio is now 7-18 overall and 3-9 in the MAC … The win was the 117th conference victory for
Miller, tying him for third place on the MAC career list with former BG and Central Michigan head coach
Fran Voll (1984-1991 at BG) … The Falcons play at Miami Saturday with tipoff at 2 p.m.
