Syracuse University
Bowling Green
Jones Eclipses 1,000 Points in Finale
3/22/2009 4:50:29 PM | Women's Basketball
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – Senior guard Chandrea Jones became the fastest player in Syracuse women's basketball history to reach the 1,000-point plateau on Sunday afternoon, but the Orange had its season come to a close at Anderson Arena after a closely contested 72-69 loss to Bowling Green in the second round of the Women's NIT Tournament. Syracuse finished the season with a 17-15 record (53.1 percent).
Jones is the 19th player to reach the 1,000-point benchmark in a record 63 games. The Baltimore, Md. native passed Martha Mogish's (1978-81) same accomplishment in 66 games. Jones finished her SU career with 1,010 career points.
Jones finished with a 13-point, nine rebound performance in her final game donning the Orange uniform, but junior forward Nicole Michael was the main source of SU's offense. The All-BIG EAST honorable mention recorded a team-high 22 points behind 10-of-15 shooting and 13 boards en route to her seventh double-double of the season. Michael's three steals and two blocks complimented SU's 11th consecutive contest in which an Orange reached a double-double.
Sophomore guards Erica Morrow rounded out SU's double-digit scorers with 11 points while Tasha Harris handed out a team-best four assists and accounted for five timely points in the contest.
Syracuse and Bowling Green finished with nearly identical lines from the floor as the Orange held the slight edge, 37.9 percent (25-66) to 37.7 percent (20-53). The story of the game was the Falcons unwavering performance from the free throw line that clinched them a date with Indiana in the next round. BGSU connected on 28-of-31 (90.3 percent) from the stripe, propped by the best free throw shooter and MAC Player of the Year, Lauren Prochaska.
Prochaska's 11-of-12 (91.7 percent) performance enabled Bowling Green with the confidence it needed down the stretch when Syracuse was forced to foul. The Orange performed well from the line, too, converting 80.0 percent (16-20) on the day.
Syracuse outrebounded Bowling Green, 45-37, in the team's second-ever WNIT game.
Michael set the tone early, crashing the offensive glass and putting back two layups to give the Orange the early edge, 4-0, off the bat. Bowling Green battled back to lock it at 6-6, but junior forward Juanita Ward came off the bench and knocked down a runner for the two-point lead, 8-6, with 15:48 left in the first half.
Jones attained her 1,000th career point on the first of two successful free throws, but Sarah Clapper netted one from downtown to give the Falcons their first lead of the game, 11-10, with 13:28 to go in the first.
Syracuse went on a 10-3 run powered by six points from Morrow to take an eight-point advantage, 21-13. Morrow kick started the spurt after drilling a 3-pointer as the shot clock expired with 13:19 left in the first half.
After two free tosses from Prochaska, the Orange scored five uninterrupted points, capped by a jumper from freshman guard Tyler Ash for a game-high 11 point lead, 26-15, with 7:42 left to go in the first.
Bowling Green went on a 6-2 run to trim the Orange lead to seven, 28-21, but Syracuse touched upon the 11-point cushion once again with baskets from sophomore guard Marissa Gobuty and Michael, 32-21. The Falcons responded with a 7-0 run to slice into the SU lead, 32-28, capped by a Tracy Pontius trifecta at the 3:38 mark of the first half.
Following Pontius' 3-ball, the Falcons tied the game, 36-36, by calling upon an 8-4 run sealed by a Prochaska layup with 00:39 seconds left. Jones canned a couple free throws to send Syracuse into the break with a two-point buffer, 38-36.
Syracuse limited BGSU to a minimal conversion rate from the floor in the early goings of the first half, but the Falcons came on hot after the Orange went up 11 for the second time. Bowling Green finished 11-of-27 (40.7 percent) to SU's 46.9 clip (15-32), but the Falcons handled their unchallenged attempts with ease, going 12-of-12 from the charity stripe. Syracuse owned a five-rebound advantage, 21-16, in the first half.
The first four minutes and change of the second half was subject to only two points for each team with junior forward Vionca Murray attacking at 17:04 to reclaim the lead, 40-38.
Syracuse reclaimed a seven-point lead, 49-42, with 13:09 left in the game, as Murray put in some work down low, to earn four straight successful trips to the line. BGSU went on a 9-5 run to creep within two, 55-53, with 9:14 remaining. Harris buried one from deep to fend off the Falcons and curb their growing momentum.
Both teams swapped baskets on each of their subsequent possessions, but Prochaska knotted the game back up, 59-59, at the 6:48 mark of the second session. Morrow and Niki McCoy exchanged two tosses from the stripe before Prochaska attacked from behind the arc for the Falcons first lead of the second half, 64-61, with 3:30 reading on the clock.
Prochaska bestowed BGSU with its largest lead by making the front end, 65-61, and the Falcons never faltered from that point on. Michael continued to charge at Bowling Green with reckless abandon, scoring six straight points on SU's next three possessions, but BGSU's free throw shooting was too strong for the Orange to overcome.
Pontius missed the backend of a one-and-one with 00:08 reading to give SU one last-ditch effort to send it into overtime, but Harris and Morrow both had their 3-point attempts blocked by Prochaska on the inbound plays and the Falcons claimed their 19th straight win at home, 72-69.
