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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
EASTERN MICHIGAN (Semifinal)
Falcons Top Eagles, 71-57, to Return to MAC Tournament Championship Game
March 09, 2007 | Women's Basketball
March 9, 2007
Final Stats |
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Photo Gallery 2 |
AP Photo Gallery
CLEVELAND, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - Senior Carin Horne scored a game-high 18 points as the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team downed Eastern Michigan University, 71-57, Friday afternoon (March 9). The win, in the semifinal round of the Kraft Mid-American Conference Tournament, was held at Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland.
With the victory, the Falcons improve to 28-3, matching last year's school- and MAC-record win total. BGSU advances to the championship game for the fourth time in as many seasons. EMU falls to 16-13 on the year.
BGSU will face Ball State (24-5) in Saturday's championship contest, which will begin at 1:00 p.m. BSU topped Northern Illinois, 83-72, in the day's first semifinal.
The win was the 100th since BGSU's senior class -- Horne, Amber Flynn, Julie Gompers, Liz Honegger, Ali Mann and Megan Thorburn -- arrived on campus.
Mann scored 13 points, while junior Kate Achter added 12 and sophomore Lindsey Goldsberry 11. Goldsberry led the Brown and Orange with nine points in the first half.
Sarah VanMetre scored 14 points and grabbed 16 rebounds for the Eagles, while Alyssa Pittman also hit double digits in the scoring column, with 12 points.
The Eagles got off to a quick start, taking a 9-4 lead after less than four minutes. Over the remainder of the first half, however, the Falcons outscored Eastern by a 31-15 count.
Just 13 seconds into the game, Pittman got open, took a VanMetre pass and hit a three-pointer. Achter converted a driving layup to put BG on the scoreboard at the 18:35 mark, and the junior knocked down a pull-up jumper less than a minute later. But, the Eagles got another Pittman three-ball to take a 6-4 lead.
Then, Patrice McKinney's drive down the lane resulted in a three-point play to give EMU that 9-4 advantage.
Horne's putback of her own miss cut that lead to three points, but a transition three by VanMetre resulted in a 12-6 Eastern lead and a timeout by BGSU.
That EMU advantage grew to eight points, at 14-6, after McKinney's jumper at the 14:12 mark. Seconds later, however, the BGSU comeback began.
Flynn worked into the lane and hit a soft shot over her defender, and Mann's shot over VanMetre caromed off the glass and nestled through the hoop. When Mann's drive-and-dish resulted into a left-side three-pointer from Goldsberry, the Falcons were within one point, 14-13.
Kelly Watts got a rebound and layup, but Achter pounded the ball inside to Honegger for a basket, and Goldsberry's shot-fake and baseline drive resulted in a left-side jumper, and BG had a 17-16 lead nearly midway through the first half.
Kivilcim Yamanoglu quickly responded with a basket, but Goldsberry's pass to an open Honegger on the left side of the court resulted in a triple with 9:55 left in the half. That gave BGSU a 20-18 lead, and the Falcons would not trail again.
Goldsberry picked up a loose ball and knocked down a jumper, and Honegger split a pair of free throws. Then, with the Falcons struggling at the offensive end, Horne bailed out her teammates with a three-pointer from the left elbow, giving the Brown and Orange a 26-18 lead with 5:50 on the clock.
Emily Hanley converted a jumper to end an EMU scoring drought of nearly five minutes, but Achter responded with a pull-up J. The Eagles scored the next four points to cut the lead to 28-24, but Pittman's hoop with 3:29 on the clock would be Eastern's final points of the half.
The Falcons scored the final seven points before intermission, with Mann and Goldsberry doing much of the work. Mann scored the first five points of that run, splitting a pair of free throws after being fouled with the shot clock near zero, and hitting a shot in the lane after a Goldsberry steal.
Then, after a Yamanoglu miss, Goldsberry grabbed the rebound, and the resulting possession saw the sophomore find Mann for another shot off glass. Goldsberry was fouled with 48.5 seconds left and hit both of her free-throw tries for a 35-24 halftime lead.
After EMU began the second-half scoring, Horne hit a three-pointer for a 38-26 lead, and Achter drew McKinney's third foul of the day with 18:43 still remaining. Achter split her charity tosses for a 13-point lead.
Mann's free throws at the 17:52 mark gave BG a 41-28 lead, and two minutes later, Horne hit a long three-pointer for a 44-30 advantage. Then, Flynn and Horne teamed up to harass Hanley near midcourt. The defensive pressure resulted in Flynn's steal and easy layup, and BG's lead was 46-30 as the Eagles burned a timeout.
Eastern rallied, however, with back-to-back three-point opportunities, as McKinney and VanMetre each hit layups. McKinney's free-throw try was not successful, but VanMetre's was, and the lead was 46-35. Then, Annie Malatinsky hit a short jumper in the lane, and BG called time as the margin had been whittled to seven points in a hurry.
With Eastern looking to narrow the gap even more, Horne's defense drew a charging call against McKinney, her fourth foul of the game, with 13:31 remaining.
The Falcons' shots were not dropping, but Honegger -- who had entered the game just a minute earlier, after missing the final 6:12 of the opening half and the first seven-plus minutes of the second stanza -- took a pass from Horne and drilled a straightaway three, and BG's lead was 49-37.
Colleen Russell scored for the Eagles, but the Falcons' next possession saw three missed shots followed by three offensive rebounds. That sequence resulted in a short jumper from Mann for a 51-39 lead.
Then, with 9:55 left, Flynn drove against a double team, hit her shot and drew a foul from Watts -- her fourth of the game. Flynn's free throw gave BG a 54-39 lead.
Pittman, however, responded with a four-point play, hitting a three while being fouled and converting the free throw.
Horne scored on an acrobatic left-side runner at the 8:55 mark, but the Eagles battled to within 56-47 by the media timeout one minute later.
Freshman Tara Breske took a teammate's pass and did a nice job of drawing contact underneath the hoop. Breske split her free-throw tries, and the lead was 10 points.
Eastern continued to fight back, nowever, drawing as close as 59-53 on two tosses by Brittany Tyson with 5:25 left. From there, neither team would score for nearly two-and-a-half minutes, before the Falcons changed that in a big way.
With 3:05 on the clock, BG had a five-point possession to take a double-digit lead. On that possession, Mann's drive-and-dish resulted in Horne's right-elbow three-pointer. While the shot was in the air, McKinney fouled Goldsberry away from the ball. Horne's shot dropped through the hoop a split-second after the whistle sounded.
The foul was McKinney's fifth, and after a media timeout, Goldsberry hit her two free throws for a 64-53 lead. The Eagles were unable to recover from that possession, getting no closer than nine points the rest of the way. Achter and Goldsberry each were 2-for-2 from the stripe in the final minute as the Falcons salted away the victory.
For the Falcons, Honegger had nine points, while Flynn added seven. Achter and Horne each had seven rebounds, with Achter's total representing a season high. Mann and Honegger grabbed six rebounds apiece as the Brown and Orange held a 42-39 advantage on the boards.
Achter, who tied her career high with 39 minutes played, had five assists, while Goldsberry dished out four.
The Falcons shot just 40.0 percent from the field, but held EMU to only a 35.5% success rate. After going 3-for-5 from three-point range to begin the day, Eastern made only one of its final 22 long-range attempts.
Horne made four triples in seven tries, leading the Falcons' 7-for-21 three-point performance.
The Falcons' Saturday game vs. Ball State will be televised by Fox Sports Net Ohio, as well as by Comcast Local in Michigan and Time Warner 13 in the Buffalo, N.Y., area.
