Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
BALL STATE (Championship)
Three-Peat! Falcons Down Ball State, 67-53, to Win MAC Tournament Championship
March 10, 2007 | Women's Basketball
March 10, 2007
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CLEVELAND, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - For the third consecutive season, the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team has won the Kraft Mid-American Conference Tournament. The Falcons completed this year's journey with a 67-53 win over Ball State University in Saturday afternoon's (March 10) championship game at Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland.
With the victory, the Falcons improve to 29-3 -- setting new school and MAC records for wins in a season -- and earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships. The Cardinals are now 24-6 on the year.
Senior Carin Horne was named the MAC Tournament MVP, while junior Kate Achter and senior Ali Mann -- who earned league tourney MVP honors in 2005 and '06, respectively -- joined her on this year's all-tournament team.
Mann led all players with 20 points in Saturday's win, while Achter had 18. Horne added 11 and senior Amber Flynn 10 against the Cardinals.
Kelsey Corbin and Porchia Green scored 15 points apiece to lead Ball State.
The Falcons shot 60.9 percent in each half, going 14-of-23 from the field both before and after the intermission. That blistering shooting rate helped BG overcome a 20-turnover afternoon. BG held BSU to a 34.0% field-goal rate, including just 23.8% (5-for-21) in the opening half of play.
The Cardinals scored on the opening possession of the game, on Lisa Rusche's offensive rebound and jumper, but would go more than 13 minutes (13:18) before hitting another field goal.
After Rusche's hoop, the Falcons would score the next seven points. Mann hit a three-pointer at the 18:44 mark, and Horne hit a long two-pointer off Achter's inbounds pass. When Achter made a steal and sailed in for a layup, the Falcons had a 7-2 lead less than three minutes into the game, and the Cardinals took a timeout.
Green hit a pair of free throws out of the game's first media timeout, but Achter's dribble penetration led to an open Megan Thorburn on the left side of the arc, and the senior buried her three-point try for a 10-4 BGSU lead.
Several minutes later, Mann blocked a shot attempt by Julie DeMuth, and DeMuth was called for a foul -- her second -- on the rebound. Flynn's layup on the ensuing possession gave the Brown and Orange a 12-4 lead with 12:39 to go before halftime.
Corbin split a pair of free-throw tries, but Horne hit a jumper in the lane, then ripped the ball away from Audrey McDonald and fired a pass to a wide-open Achter for an easy layup, a 16-5 BG lead and Ball State's second timeout of the game.
Thirty seconds later, Horne drove down the lane, faked a pass to the wing and hit a layup off glass for an 18-5 advantage.
Within the next few minutes, however, Horne and sophomore Lindsey Goldsberry each were whistled for their second fouls of the game. Both teams struggled to score over the next few minutes, as Corbin's four free throws were the only points in a span of over six minutes.
with 6:12 remaining before halftime, Green hit a three-pointer -- just the Cardinals' second field goal of the game -- to cut the lead to 18-12. Prior to that shot, BSU had been just 1-for-11 from the field with nine turnovers, but Green's triple cut the Falcons' lead to just six points.
Just 16 seconds after that shot, however, Thorburn hit a triple of her own from out top, ending BSU's 7-0 run and giving the Falcons a nine-point lead. DeMuth responded with a layup, but was called for her third foul of the game as she and Mann tumbled to the ground near press row across from the BGSU bench.
Corbin's hoop brought the Cardinals within just five points, at 21-16, but Flynn's layup at the 3:56 mark began an 8-0 run which extended BG's lead to double digits for the remainder of the game.
Flynn played a big part in that run, scoring six points and making a steal that led to the other two. She ripped the ball away from a BSU post player, leading to a possession that resulted in Mann's driving shot off glass. BG forced a low-percentage shot by Green at the shot-clock buzzer, and Mann grabbed the rebound. Flynn then gave BG a 27-16 lead with an `and-one' layup at the 2:02 mark.
The free-throw try would not drop, but after another BSU miss, Flynn scored again off of a feed by Mann, and the fired-up Falcons had a 29-16 advantage.
Rusche's putback ended the run, but Mann's runner in the lane gave the Brown and Orange a 31-18 lead at the half.
The Falcons, after that 60.9% shooting performance in the opening 20 minutes, made the first four field-goal attempts of the second half, and went 8-for-11 from the field over the first eight-plus minutes to open up a 21-point lead.
On the first possession of the half, a Thorburn screen helped get Achter all the way to the basket relatively unimpeded for a layup and a 15-point lead. Rusche scored at the other end, but Achter countered with a teardrop jumper that barely even moved the net.
Mann stole a Ball State inbounds pass and fired the ball ahead to Achter. The junior, leading a 3-on-2 break, hit Horne with a bounce pass, and the senior's layup gave BG a 37-20 advantage.
The Cards looked to rally, on a pair of second-chance hoops; Green's tip-in and a putback by DeMuth. But, with three minutes gone in the half, Mann took an Achter pass and drained a three-pointer for a 41-24 Falcon advantage.
A minute later, Goldsberry tipped the ball away on a BSU inbounds pass, and the Falcons gained possession. That sequence led to a nifty stutter-step, hesitation move by the Falcon sophomore on the left baseline. Goldsberry's layup put BG ahead by 19 points.
The Cardinals, as they did all day, would keep battling. BSU scored the next six points, capped by Kalynne Proctor's putback after a Green steal, and Falcon coach Curt Miller took a timeout with 13:24 left.
The Falcons had success all game long out of timeouts, and this time was no exception. Achter drove the lane for a layup and was fouled in the process. The junior's free throw was good, and BG's lead was 16, 46-30.
That three-point play sparked an 8-0 run. After a BSU miss, Thorburn's pass resulted in Mann's three-pointer from the right elbow, and another Achter layup put the margin over 20 points for the first time in the game, 51-30.
A Rusche jumper was followed by a Green triple, though, making it a 51-35 game with 9:35 remaining.
Horne, back in the game after several minutes on the bench, hit a three-pointer from the left wing, but Corbin hit an 'and-one' layup. Her free-throw try was no good, however, and Achter's entry pass resulted in a Flynn layup and a 56-37 lead.
BSU again came back, as the Cards would score eight of the next 10 points. McDonald hit three-pointers to begin and end that stretch, and BG's only basket during that span was a layup by Mann after several quick passes.
With BG holding that 13-point margin, however, Mann drove the left baseline and hit a jumper over two defenders, and the MAC's co-Player of the Year then made a nice move in the lane for another hoop and a 62-45 lead with five minutes left. The Falcons were on their way to a third consecutive tournament title.
Flynn, in addition to her 10-point afternoon, had a game-high seven rebounds to help the Falcons to a 30-26 advantage on the boards. Achter had seven assists and six boards in the game, playing all 40 minutes for the first time in her career.
Mann hit three three-pointers to match her career best, and had five rebounds and two blocked shots to tie Flynn for game honors in the latter category.
Thorburn had six points on a pair of triples, and added three assists.
The Falcons, as mentioned, shot 14-of-23 from the field in each half. BGSU also had identical three-point field-goal marks in each half, going 3-for-7 both before and after the intermission.
The Falcons will learn their NCAA Championships first-round date, site and opponent on Monday night (March 12). First-round games will be held on Saturday and Sunday (March 17-18).
NOTES
* Seniors Carin Horne and Ali Mann and junior Kate Achter were joined on the MAC All-Tournament Team by BSU's Julie DeMuth and Northern Illinois' Stephanie Raymond.
* Horne was named to the all-tourney team for the first time in her career ... Achter has been named to the team in all three of her years with BGSU, and Mann also was voted to the squad for the third time in her career.
* Horne averaged 17.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per game in the Falcons' three MAC Tournament wins this year ... she shot 60.6% from the field (20-for-33), and went 8-for-17 (47.1%) from three-point range.
* Achter averaged 15.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.3 assists in the league tournament ... the junior shot 51.7% from the floor and led the Falcons at the free-throw line, going 15-for-18 (83.3%) ... Mann had 14.3 points, a team-high 6.7 boards and a 45.7% field-goal pct. in the 2007 MAC Tournament.
* Horne scored in double digits in the MAC Tournament's championship game in all four years with BGSU ... she had 17, 17, 16 and 11 points in those four contests, helping the Falcons to wins in the latter three.
* BG's 'three-peat' is just the third in MAC history ... the Falcons won four-straight tourney titles from 1987 to 1990, and Toledo captured three consecutive crowns between 1995 and 1997.
* Bowling Green is the only school ever to win the MAC's regular-season title and the league tourney crown in each of three consecutive seasons ... the Falcons also turned the trick in the 1987 through 1989 seasons
* The Falcons' win, as mentioned, was the 29th of the season, breaking the school and MAC records set by last year's team ... the 2005-06 Falcons went 28-3.
* BGSU's win was the 101st since the current senior class arrived on campus ... that sets a new school record for wins in a four-year span ... BG is now 101-24 since the start of the 2003-04 campaign.
* The Falcons held Ball State to just 18 points in the first half, after allowing Kent State to score only 13 in the opening half of last season's league championship game ... BG allowed the opponents to shoot a combined 10-for-46 (21.7%) in the first halves of those two games.
* BGSU has won nine consecutive games, and 11 of the last 12 contests, at Gund/Quicken Loans Arena.
