The three-day trip to Sin City is off to a good note for Bowling Green’s women’s basketball team.
Four Falcons paced with ten points apiece in a 72-60 victory over Oakland on Sunday in the opener of the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic at South Point Arena. The win pushes Bowling Green to three in a row and back to the .500 mark at 4-4 overall.
“Tonight was a great team win,” Falcons coach Robyn Fralick said. “I loved the effort from our whole team, and I thought our defensive effort — especially in the first half — was very good tonight.”
Elissa Brett, Nyla Hampton, Kadie Hempfling, and Zoe Miller each tallied 10 points, and Morgan Sharps followed with nine points. Sharps made 3 of 4 from 3-point range.
Jocelyn Tate had eight points and five rebounds off the bench. Miller led BGSU with seven rebounds, Hampton had six, and Hempfling and Kenzie Lewis each grabbed five.
Bowling Green roared to a 13-3 scoring run to take a 17-12 lead after the first quarter. The Falcons grabbed an 11-10 lead on Miller’s layup with 4:46 to play in the first quarter and never trailed from that point.
Oakland (4-6) crept back to within two points at 22-20 in the second quarter before BGSU got back on track with a Sophie Dziekan layup, a pair of free throws from Brett, and layups from Tate and Brett off of Oakland turnovers.
The Falcons gained a 13-point lead at 37-24 at halftime, and got the lead to 20 at 59-39 just before the end of the third quarter on a pair of free throws from Hampton.
BGSU scored 28 points off of 17 Oakland turnovers. The Falcons shot 42 percent from the field (28-for-67) to Oakland’s 32 percent (19 for 60) and got 34 points from their bench.
Kahlaijah Dean scored 28 points on 10 of 17 shooting for the Golden Grizzlies.
BGSU was scheduled to face Campbell on Monday, but Campbell did not make the trip to Las Vegas due to coronavirus protocols. The Falcons will oppose UT Martin at 8 p.m. Tuesday to wrap up their stay in Las Vegas, and Mid-American Conference play begins with a road contest Dec. 29 at Eastern Michigan.
First Published December 20, 2021, 2:07 a.m.
