BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Bowling Green State University womens basketball team rallied back from a double-digit deficit with a fourth-quarter run, but the University at Buffalo ultimately came away with an 82-72 win on Wednesday in Mid-American Conference action at Alumni Arena.
Amy Velasco and Erika Porter each posted double-doubles for the Falcons (10-7, 4-3 MAC), who had four players in double figures in the scoring column. But, Chellia Watson, the MAC’s top scorer, had 36 points for the Bulls (10-7, 4-3 MAC).
Velasco had 16 points and tied her career high with 11 assists on Wednesday. Freshman Paige Kohler also scored 16 points. Both Velasco and Kohler played all 40 minutes of the contest.
Porter had her second double-double in as many games, with 14 points and a game-high 13 rebounds, while Morgan Sharps scored 10 points. Olivia Hill had nine points on perfect 4-for-4 shooting.
The Bulls ended the first half on a 12-4 run to take a five-point lead into the intermission. That lead grew as high as 13 points late in the third quarter.
But, the Falcons ended that quarter on an 11-4 run, then scored the first five points of the fourth period to close to within one point. When Velasco found Porter for a layup, BGSU had a 62-61 lead with 6:10 to go.
The teams traded points for the next few minutes, with another Velasco-to-Porter connection resulting in a layup and a 69-67 advantage. But, after a UB bucket tied the score, a Watson steal and layup gave the hosts the lead for good.
BGSU missed several shots and UB extended the lead at the foul line, before another Watson jumper made it an eight-point game with just over a minute remaining.
Amy Velasco opened the game with a driving layup, and Paige Kohler’s three-point play gave the Falcons a 6-3 lead just over two minutes into the contest. But, UB answered with a quick 6-0 run, with a Chellia Watson layup putting the hosts up by three.
Velasco found Morgan Sharps for a jumper, and after UB answered at the other end, Kohler hit a long three-pointer to begin a 10-0 BGSU run. Velasco’s defensive rebound and long pass ahead led to a Kohler runout, and Sharps took a Velasco handoff and knocked down a long-range shot. When Sharps hit a pull-up jumper in the paint, BG had an 18-11 lead.
A pair of Watson layups began another 6-0 run by the hosts, and the teams traded points over the final two-plus minutes of the quarter. Taya Ellis put back a teammate’s missed shot, and Kohler hit a long two-point shot. BGSU led, 22-21, after 10 minutes.
Kohler scored 10 points and Sharps seven in the opening quarter, with Velasco dishing out five assists.
Neither team scored for over two minutes to begin the second period, before Ellis hit a jumper and Erika Porter had a putback in traffic. Watson grabbed a defensive rebound and pulled up for a three-point make, but Velasco answered with a three-pointer out at the top of the arc, and the Falcons had a 29-26 lead midway through the quarter.
But, UB again responded, scoring the game’s next six points capped by an Alexis Davis layup. Ellis sank a free throw, but Rana Elhusseini made a corner three for a five-point UB lead.
Kohler took a Velasco pass and drilled a long-distance shot with 30 seconds on the clock, but after a Buffalo miss, a long rebound came out to Elhusseini, who hit another long-range shot in the final seconds of the half to give the hosts a 38-33 lead.
Kohler made a baseline drive and hit a layup on the first possession of the second half, and a long Velasco pass resulted in an Olivia HIll layup to cut UB’s lead to one point with less than a minute elapsed. Kirsten Lewis-Williams scored for the hosts, before Velasco answered with a driving layup.
But, Watson countered with a pair of buckets, then a transition ‘and-one’ layup, with her free throw giving the hosts a 47-39 lead. A nifty pass by Sophie Dziekan resulted in Hill’s second-chance layup, but UB got a Davis bucket, and Lewis-Williams scored after a turnover to give the home side an 11-point advantage as the Falcons used a timeout.
That lead grew to 13 points before the Falcons worked their way back. Hill scored off of a nice feed from Sharps, and several minutes later, Porter’s driving layup cut the BG deficit to single digits.
Davis scored inside, but Kohler found Velasco for a three-ball as the shot clock neared zero, and Velasco’s inbounds pass resulted in a Porter layup in the final minute of the quarter. BG’s 5-0 run was part of a larger 11-4 surge to end the period, and the Falcons were within six points, at 58-52.
To start the fourth quarter, Kohler drove and dished to Hill for a corner three that cut that UB six-point lead in half, and after UB airballed a three, Sharps hit a floater to make it a one-point game.
Elhusseini knocked down a three-point try, but Velasco did the same, and after a Watson miss, Velasco found Porter for a layup and a 62-61 BGSU lead with just over six minutes to go.
A Watson jumper bounced in, for UB’s first points of the quarter, but Velasco’s three-pointer gave the Orange and Brown a 65-63 lead. The teams traded free throws, then after a Watson floater, Velasco drove and lobbed the ball to Porter for a layup and a 69-67 advantage with 3:15 remaining.
But, Davis came back with a layup, and Watson’s steal and layup gave the Bulls a 71-69 lead. BG was called for an offensive foul, and moments later, the hosts got a pair of free throws. After a BG miss, Lewis-Williams went to the line and hit a pair of shots, and Watson’s jumper with 1:10 to go made it a 77-69 game.
Kohler’s free throw with 55.9 seconds left cut the lead to seven, but BG could draw no closer.
On the day, BGSU shot 48.3% from the field, going 28-for-58, while the Bulls shot 42.3%. UB had 13 more shot attempts in the contest, however.
The Falcons were 8-of-26 from three-point range (30.8%), with the hosts going 5-for-17 from the arc (29.4%). UB made 17-of-19 shots from the free-throw line (89.5%), including an 11-for-12 effort in the fourth quarter.
Watson, one of the top scorers in the nation, had 36 points for the Bulls. She made 15 shots in 32 attempts. Elhusseini had 15 points and Lewis-WIlliams and Davis 12 apiece for the hosts.
UB had a 42-35 rebounding advantage, and the Bulls committed just five turnovers. BGSU had 21 assists on 28 field goals.
BGSU returns home to face Kent State on Saturday (Jan. 27), with tipoff at 4:00 p.m. Saturday will be Alumnae Day at the Stroh Center, with a large number of former Falcon greats scheduled to be in attendance.
The KSU game begins a stretch in which five of the Falcons’ next six games are at home. BGSU will host Northern Illinois next Wednesday (Jan. 31), and after a game at Toledo (Feb. 3), the Falcons will welcome Ohio (Feb. 7), Troy (Feb. 10) and the Rockets (Feb. 17) to the Stroh.
