The University of Akron Athletics
University of Akron
Bowling Green
Women's Basketball falls to MAC East foe Bowling Green, 81-65
January 12 | Women's Basketball
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -- Three Zips scored in double figures led by Rachel Tecca with 22 points, but Akron could not find a way to cool off Bowling Green's hot shooting from behind the 3-point arc in a 81-65 loss on the road Sunday afternoon.
Akron slid to 7-7 overall on the season and 1-2 in the Mid-American Conference with the result, while BGSU improved to 13-2 and 3-0 in the league.
Tecca shot 8-for-16 from the field and was one rebound short of a double-double, pairing nine boards with her game-high 22 points. She became the school's all-time leading rebounder with her third carom of the game at the 6:46 mark of the first half. The senior has 923 rebounds for her career, surpassing Pam Arnold (1984-88).
Hanna Luburgh added 14 points, also shooting 50 percent from the floor (7-for-14), and Kacie Cassell chipped in 11 points and five assists.
Bowling Green placed five players in double figures offensively, paced by Jillian Halfhill's 18 points on four 3-pointers. As a team, BGSU shot 55.6 percent (10-for-18) from long range for the game.
The Zips struggled to take care of the ball early in the game, giving up 10 turnovers in the first half as a result of Bowling Green's pressure half-court defense.
Carly Young drained Akron's first triple of the day at 15:06 in the first, making it a two-point game at 11-9 in BGSU's favor. Akron stayed within five points of the Falcons until Bowling Green's Deborah Hoekstra sank a 3-pointer made it 20-10 with a little more than 12 minutes to go in the half.
Sparked by a triple from Tecca, Akron made a run at Bowling Green and gained some momentum in the final minutes of the first half.
Tecca found Luburgh on a backdoor cut for a quick two points with 3:15 on the clock, and then put in a layup of her own less than a minute later to keep the difference at five points (34-29). The Falcons would answer with a pair of free throws and a final Halfhill 3-pointer with 22 seconds remaining to carry a 10-point advantage into halftime at 39-29. Bowling Green shot 6-for-10 from long range in the first 20 minutes.
Trailing by 15 less than three minutes into the second half, the Zips came out of a timeout and scored seven unanswered points highlighted by a Cassell 3-point play, to cut the deficit to eight, 46-38 at the 15:10 mark.
UA would not be able to bridge the gap any further however, as the Falcons began to pull away midway through the second half behind a strong showing from the free throw line. Akron's defense held BGSU to nine field goals in the final period, but 20 of the Falcons' 42 second-half points came from the charity stripe.
Akron stays on the road for a midweek game at Miami (Ohio) on Wednesday, Jan. 15. Tip-off between the Zips and the RedHawks is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Millett Hall.
