BOWLING GREEN, OHIO - Bowling Green made its first five shots and shot 55 percent in the first half en route to defeating the Canisius College women's basketball team 82-59 at the Anderson Arena on Tuesday night. The Golden Griffins fall to 3-7 on the season.
Freshman Courtney VandeBovenkamp led Canisius with 19 points and six rebounds while freshman Jen Morabito had 18 points and was 2-for-6 from behind the arc. Senior Micayla Drysdale and freshman Jen Lennox each added six points.
"When a team as talented as Bowling Green makes a bunch of shots early, that gives a team a comfort level," Canisius coach Terry Zeh said. "I thought we were scrambling a little bit early, but we dug in and really competed. Even giving up 82 points, we did some good things defensively. We need to take the good things from this game and continue to build to get ready for conference play.
Bowling Green (11-1) jumped out to a 23-8 lead as the Falcons made their first three and five of their first six 3-point attempts in the game. Canisius trailed by as many as 19 points at 37-18, but an 8-3 Canisius run - 3-pointer and layup from Morabito and a three-point play from VandeBovenkamp - made it 40-26.
The Falcons took a 46-30 lead into the locker room and opened the half on a 20-5 run to push their lead to 31 points. Morabito scored five straight points to cut into the Bowling Green lead, making the score 66-40. The Falcons maintained a comfortable margin for the rest of the game to win their 11th straight contest.
Tracy Pontius led Bowling Green with 16 points while Jen Uhl had 14 points and Chrissy Steffen had 12 points.
Canisius returns from the Christmas break to wrap up its non-conference schedule on Tuesday, Dec. 28, when the Golden Griffins host Maryland Eastern Shore. Game time in the Koessler Athletic Center is set for 7 p.m.
Notes: Canisius extended its NCAA record of consecutive games with a 3-pointer to 495 games on a 3-pointer by Morabito in the first half... Canisius and Bowling Green met for the second consecutive season, which are the only two meetings in program history... Bowling Green was the third Canisius opponent of the season to play in the Mid-American Conference... Morabito has made at least one 3-pointer in all six games she's played in this season... Lennox had two blocks for the third time this season and for the first time since Nov. 16, at Binghamton... Junior Steph MacDonald had three steals for the third consecutive game... Drysdale (three assists, one turnover) had an assist-turnover ratio of 2.0 or better for the 33rd time in her career.
