Saturday, March 13
Cleveland, Ohio
1:00 PM
Bowling Green State University
62
vs
53
Toledo (Championship)
The Falcons celebrate as the final seconds tick off the clock (photo by Dave Kielmeyer, BGSU)
MAC Champs! BGSU Downs Toledo, 62-53, for MAC Tournament Title
March 13, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Falcons win conference tourney crown for the MAC-record 10th time
The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team earned the 10th Mid-American Conference Tournament title in program history, posting a 62-53 win over the University of Toledo in the championship game Saturday (March 13). The game was held at Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland.
Final Stats - HTML | Boxscore - PDF | 2009-10 BGSU News Articles
IN-GAME AUDIO: Final Seconds of WBGU Broadcast (Pat Dougherty & Anthony Bellino)
POSTGAME AUDIO: Curt Miller, Tara Breske & Lauren Prochaska
PHOTO GALLERY: Photos by Dave Kielmeyer & Brad Phalin, BGSU
With the win, the Falcons improve to 27-6 on the season, and BGSU earns the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships. The Rockets drop to 24-8 on the year.
Junior Lauren Prochaska scored a game-high 29 points in the win en route to being named MAC Tournament MVP. Prochaska was the lone BGSU player in double digits in the game.
For the Rockets, Tanika Mays had 18 points to pace three players in double figures. Melissa Goodall scored 15 points and pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds, while Naama Shafir had 12 points and seven assists.
BGSU's total of 10 MAC Tournament titles is the highest of any conference institution. Toledo has won seven league tourney crowns.
The title was BG's fourth in the last six years, all under head coach Curt Miller. Miller and the Falcons have won the MAC's regular-season title outright in all six of those seasons.
Prochaska was joined by senior Tara Breske on the MAC All-Tournament Team. Toledo's Mays and Shafir each made the team, as did Jamilah Humes of Kent State.
Toledo got off to fast starts in each half, but the Falcons closed strong in both periods. The opening half saw the Rockets take leads of 10-2 and 22-12, before the Falcons ended the period on a 17-2 run to take a 29-24 advantage into the lockerroom.
The Rockets scored the first six points of the second period, taking the lead on the first of six lead changes in the half. BGSU ended the game by scoring the final eight points after UT had gotten within one with 1:26 left.
BGSU shot just 35.0 percent from the field after shooting .500 in the previous two games, tourney wins over Miami and Akron. And, the Falcons were only 4-of-17 (.235) from three-point land, with Prochaska hitting all four of BG's treys on the day.
The Falcons tied season-low totals in both three-pointers made and assists (eight), with a turnover-to-assist ratio of nearly two to one. However, BG allowed the Rockets to shoot just .344 from the field, forced UT into 18 turnovers, and held a 46-40 rebounding advantage. And, the Brown and Orange had 32 points in the paint to the Rockets' 24.
The teams got off to a slow start, struggling to find a rhythm. Shafir scored on the Rockets' first possession, and the teams then proceeded to go exactly two minutes without scoring. Prochaska got the Falcons on the board with a long two-pointer, but Mays hit a three-pointer just before the first media timeout of the day, then knocked down another triple a minute later for an 8-2 UT lead.
When Goodall's entry pass resulted in a layup for Yolanda Richardson, the Rockets had a 10-2 advantage and Miller took a timeout at the 13:32 mark.
Junior Maggie Hennegan's offensive rebound and putback gave the Falcons their second basket of the day with nearly seven minutes gone, but Shafir's three-pointer gave the Rockets a nine-point advantage.
Nurse got herself to the free-throw line multiple times on the same possession. She split a pair of free throws, missing the second. But, Breske got the offensive rebound, and Nurse drove and was fouled again. Out of the 11:57 media timeout, the senior transfer hit a pair of tosses to get the Falcons within 13-7.
The teams traded baskets, with Goodall scoring for UT and Uhl for BG, before Uhl drove across the lane and dished a pass to Prochaska. The junior knocked down a three-pointer as the shot-clock buzzer sounded, bringing the Falcons within just three points, at 15-12.
But, Mays matched Prochaska at the other end, hitting a triple of her own as the shot clock wound down. That sparked a quick 7-0 run for the Rockets, as Shafir found Mays for an easy layup, prompting a second BGSU timeout with 8:42 on the clock.
Out of the timeout, though, Prochaska was called for an offensive foul, and Richardson's layup from another Shafir pass gave the Rockets a 10-point lead, the largest for either team all day.
Prochaska drew a foul heading into the game's third media timeout, and split her free throws. The junior got back to the stripe and hit two shots, and a Breske steal led to junior Jen Uhl's 'and-one' layup with 5:49 left in the half. Uhl's free throw cut the Rockets' lead to 22-18.
The lead was cut in half after Prochaska's driving one-hander in the lane went down with 4:24 left. Goodall stopped BG's 8-0 run, converting a putback to give the Rockets a 24-20 advantage, but the Falcons then held the Rockets scoreless over the final 3:35 of the period.
Following Goodall's layup, sophomore Jessica Slagle drove the baseline and put a sweet reverse layup off the glass and through the hoop. Shafir was called for an offensive foul, and Prochaska's runner tied the game, 24-24, with 2:48 left.
With 1:34 on the clock, Hennegan's entry pass found Breske for a jumper as she was being fouled. The free throw did not drop, but the Brown and Orange led for the first time in the game, 26-24.
Freshman Chrissy Steffen grabbed Allie Clifton's missed layup try, and Clifton fouled Steffen on the rebound. The first-year Falcon split two tried from the line with 54 seconds left, missing the second. But, Breske came up with the offensive board, keeping the ball in the hands of the Falcons. The possession culminated with Breske's jumper with 38 seconds left, giving BG a 29-24 lead at the half.
The West Division champions got off to a fast start in the second half. A Goodall jumper was followed by a driving layup from Mays, and when Shafir hit a layup at the 17:19 juncture, UT had a 6-0 run and a 30-29 lead.
The Falcons responded quickly, as junior Tracy Pontius drove and dished to Breske for a short jumper. Then, Prochaska came off a screen to take a handoff from Breske and hit a three-pointer, putting BG ahead by a 34-30 count. Goodall's three-point play on an offensive board and putback, however, brought the Midnight Blue and Gold within a point.
After UT tied the game on a Richardson FT, a steal and a 1-on-2 layup by senior Tamika Nurse gave the Falcons a 36-34 advantage with 13:49 remaining.
The Rockets' response was a 5-0 run, beginning with a Jessica Williams trey on the possession after Nurse's layup. Just over a minute later, Goodall got one of her five offensive rebounds of the game and hit another putback, putting her team ahead by a 39-36 score.
After Prochaska hit two free throws, Hennegan's layup put BG ahead by a 40-39 count. Shafir and Goodall scored to give UT a three-point lead, but Prochaska connected on a driving layup at the nine-minute mark, then drilled a three-pointer immediately out of the eight-minute media timeout. BG's lead was 45-43.
Shafir tied the game with a layup, but Prochaska, seemingly trapped on the baseline, hit Hennegan with a jump pass. Hennegan's layup with 6:20 left gave the Falcons the lead for good.
UT threw the ball away and took a timeout, and Prochaska dribbled around the arc for an interminable length of time before spotting up for, and knocking down, a shot from long range. The triple gave the Falcons a 50-45 lead with 5:38 remaining.
Mays made two free throws to cut the lead to three pointer, but each team then failed to score on the next three possessions. The final possession in that six-possession stretch ended when Nurse stole the ball from Williams in BG's end of the court and sank a transition layup after a nifty athletic play to avoid the pursuing Williams. The lead was five points once again with 3:34 left.
Mays missed two free throws out of the game's final media timeout, but the Rocket senior hit her fourth three-pointer of the game with 2:48 left, cutting BG's advantage to 52-50.
After a BGSU miss on the ensuing possession, Shafir drove the lane and was fouled with 2:10 left. She split her charity tosses to get UT within a single point.
Prochaska, however, hit a tough runner with 1:45 left, but a loose ball on UT's next possession bounced directly to Goodall under the basket, and her layup but BG's lead to 54-53 with 1:26 remaining.
Uhl hit a one-handed quasi-hook shot after an inbounds pass from Pontius, and Breske smothered a shot attempt by Shafir on the next possession. The senior co-captain came up with the rebound, giving the ball back to the Brown and Orange.
Mays fouled Prochaska on a drive to the basket, and the BG junior converted a pair of free throws with 44.9 seconds left for a 58-53 lead.
Williams missed a three-point try and Uhl came up with the rebound, quickly firing a pass to Nurse. The Falcon senior was fouled with 26.7 seconds remaining and hit both ends of her one-and-one opportunity.
With time running out on the Rockets, Shafir fired a long three-point try that was off the mark, and Pontius was fouled after corralling the rebound. Her free throws with 9.0 seconds left closed the scoring.
Shafir missed a final shot attempt and Prochaska came up with the ball as time ran out and the Falcons celebrated a conference tourney title.
After displaying a balanced scoring attack in each of the first two MAC Tournament games, the Falcons saw Prochaska score nearly half of the team's points on Saturday. Her 29-point total was a season high for a BGSU player, and was the most since last year's MAC Tournament semifinal game vs. UT, when junior Tracy Pontius went off for 32 points.
The Falcons, as mentioned, earn the MAC's automatic bid to the 2010 NCAA Championships. BGSU will find out its tournament seed, site and opponent on Monday night (March 15), as ESPN will present the exclusive live announcement of the 64-team NCAA Tournament field as part of Selection Monday. The show will air at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time.
A FEW QUICK FALCON NOTES
* The Falcons, as mentioned, have won 10 MAC Tournament titles, the most of any conference school ... Toledo is second with seven tourney crowns.
* BGSU now leads Toledo, 41-26, in the all-time series between the teams ... the Falcons are 8-3 against the Rockets in the MAC Tournament, including a perfect 3-0 mark in the championship game ... BG and UT also met in the title game in 1989 and 1994.
* The Falcons are 4-0 vs. the Rockets in MAC Tournament meetings in the Curt Miller Era ... the teams have met in the league tourney in four of the last five seasons.
* Overall, BGSU is now 10-2 in MAC Championship games, and the Falcons have an all-time MAC Tournament record of 39-16 (.709) ... in addition to owning the most tournament championships, BGSU now has the highest league tourney winning percentage among all MAC institutions ... the Falcons trailed Toledo (now 43-19, .694) in that category before downing the Rockets on Saturday.
* Saturday's game marked the first time in five years that BGSU played a MAC Tournament game against a team that had defeated them in the regular season ... the last such games came in the 2005 tourney ... that year, the Falcons went 13-3 in the regular season, losing twice to Eastern Michigan and once to Kent State ... but, the Falcons downed EMU in the semifinals before beating KSU in the championship, for the first tourney title in the Miller Era.
* Junior Lauren Prochaska has moved into third place on the BGSU career scoring list ... with a season-high total of 29 points vs. the Rockets, Prochaska now has 1,680 points in 101 games at BGSU ... she has moved past Sara Puthoff on that list, and now trails only Jackie Motycka and Ali Mann.
BGSU CAREER SCORING
1 - Jackie Motycka (2,122 pts. from 1985-89)
2 - Ali Mann (1,825 pts. from 2003-07)
3 - Lauren Prochaska (1,680 pts.)
4 - Sara Puthoff (1,678 pts. from 1994-98)
5 - Kate Achter (1,580 pts. from 2004-08)
* BGSU is now 18-5 in the MAC Tournament under Curt Miller, including an 18-3 mark in the last seven years ... the Falcons are 17-4 all-time in games played at Gund/Quicken Loans Arena, including a 17-3 record under Miller at the facility.
* The Falcons went on a 17-2 run to end the first half ... that run came after former Falcon Kate Achter won the cup race, part of an on-court promotion during the eight-minute media timeout ... Achter was named the MAC Tournament MVP on the same court in 2005.
* Saturday was a pretty good day for the Albert family of Brighton, Mich. ... Chelsea Albert, of course, is a junior on the 2010 MAC regular-season and tournament champions ... on the same day that the Falcons clinched a trip to the NCAA Tournament, Vermont won the America East Conference tourney title with a 55-50 win over nationally-ranked Hartford ... Chelsea's younger sister, Morgan, is a freshman on the Vermont women's basketball team.
Final Stats - HTML | Boxscore - PDF | 2009-10 BGSU News Articles
IN-GAME AUDIO: Final Seconds of WBGU Broadcast (Pat Dougherty & Anthony Bellino)
POSTGAME AUDIO: Curt Miller, Tara Breske & Lauren Prochaska
PHOTO GALLERY: Photos by Dave Kielmeyer & Brad Phalin, BGSU
With the win, the Falcons improve to 27-6 on the season, and BGSU earns the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships. The Rockets drop to 24-8 on the year.
For the Rockets, Tanika Mays had 18 points to pace three players in double figures. Melissa Goodall scored 15 points and pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds, while Naama Shafir had 12 points and seven assists.
BGSU's total of 10 MAC Tournament titles is the highest of any conference institution. Toledo has won seven league tourney crowns.
The title was BG's fourth in the last six years, all under head coach Curt Miller. Miller and the Falcons have won the MAC's regular-season title outright in all six of those seasons.
Prochaska was joined by senior Tara Breske on the MAC All-Tournament Team. Toledo's Mays and Shafir each made the team, as did Jamilah Humes of Kent State.
Toledo got off to fast starts in each half, but the Falcons closed strong in both periods. The opening half saw the Rockets take leads of 10-2 and 22-12, before the Falcons ended the period on a 17-2 run to take a 29-24 advantage into the lockerroom.
BGSU shot just 35.0 percent from the field after shooting .500 in the previous two games, tourney wins over Miami and Akron. And, the Falcons were only 4-of-17 (.235) from three-point land, with Prochaska hitting all four of BG's treys on the day.
The Falcons tied season-low totals in both three-pointers made and assists (eight), with a turnover-to-assist ratio of nearly two to one. However, BG allowed the Rockets to shoot just .344 from the field, forced UT into 18 turnovers, and held a 46-40 rebounding advantage. And, the Brown and Orange had 32 points in the paint to the Rockets' 24.
The teams got off to a slow start, struggling to find a rhythm. Shafir scored on the Rockets' first possession, and the teams then proceeded to go exactly two minutes without scoring. Prochaska got the Falcons on the board with a long two-pointer, but Mays hit a three-pointer just before the first media timeout of the day, then knocked down another triple a minute later for an 8-2 UT lead.
When Goodall's entry pass resulted in a layup for Yolanda Richardson, the Rockets had a 10-2 advantage and Miller took a timeout at the 13:32 mark.
Junior Maggie Hennegan's offensive rebound and putback gave the Falcons their second basket of the day with nearly seven minutes gone, but Shafir's three-pointer gave the Rockets a nine-point advantage.
Nurse got herself to the free-throw line multiple times on the same possession. She split a pair of free throws, missing the second. But, Breske got the offensive rebound, and Nurse drove and was fouled again. Out of the 11:57 media timeout, the senior transfer hit a pair of tosses to get the Falcons within 13-7.
The teams traded baskets, with Goodall scoring for UT and Uhl for BG, before Uhl drove across the lane and dished a pass to Prochaska. The junior knocked down a three-pointer as the shot-clock buzzer sounded, bringing the Falcons within just three points, at 15-12.
But, Mays matched Prochaska at the other end, hitting a triple of her own as the shot clock wound down. That sparked a quick 7-0 run for the Rockets, as Shafir found Mays for an easy layup, prompting a second BGSU timeout with 8:42 on the clock.
Out of the timeout, though, Prochaska was called for an offensive foul, and Richardson's layup from another Shafir pass gave the Rockets a 10-point lead, the largest for either team all day.
Prochaska drew a foul heading into the game's third media timeout, and split her free throws. The junior got back to the stripe and hit two shots, and a Breske steal led to junior Jen Uhl's 'and-one' layup with 5:49 left in the half. Uhl's free throw cut the Rockets' lead to 22-18.
The lead was cut in half after Prochaska's driving one-hander in the lane went down with 4:24 left. Goodall stopped BG's 8-0 run, converting a putback to give the Rockets a 24-20 advantage, but the Falcons then held the Rockets scoreless over the final 3:35 of the period.
Following Goodall's layup, sophomore Jessica Slagle drove the baseline and put a sweet reverse layup off the glass and through the hoop. Shafir was called for an offensive foul, and Prochaska's runner tied the game, 24-24, with 2:48 left.
With 1:34 on the clock, Hennegan's entry pass found Breske for a jumper as she was being fouled. The free throw did not drop, but the Brown and Orange led for the first time in the game, 26-24.
Freshman Chrissy Steffen grabbed Allie Clifton's missed layup try, and Clifton fouled Steffen on the rebound. The first-year Falcon split two tried from the line with 54 seconds left, missing the second. But, Breske came up with the offensive board, keeping the ball in the hands of the Falcons. The possession culminated with Breske's jumper with 38 seconds left, giving BG a 29-24 lead at the half.
The West Division champions got off to a fast start in the second half. A Goodall jumper was followed by a driving layup from Mays, and when Shafir hit a layup at the 17:19 juncture, UT had a 6-0 run and a 30-29 lead.
The Falcons responded quickly, as junior Tracy Pontius drove and dished to Breske for a short jumper. Then, Prochaska came off a screen to take a handoff from Breske and hit a three-pointer, putting BG ahead by a 34-30 count. Goodall's three-point play on an offensive board and putback, however, brought the Midnight Blue and Gold within a point.
After UT tied the game on a Richardson FT, a steal and a 1-on-2 layup by senior Tamika Nurse gave the Falcons a 36-34 advantage with 13:49 remaining.
The Rockets' response was a 5-0 run, beginning with a Jessica Williams trey on the possession after Nurse's layup. Just over a minute later, Goodall got one of her five offensive rebounds of the game and hit another putback, putting her team ahead by a 39-36 score.
After Prochaska hit two free throws, Hennegan's layup put BG ahead by a 40-39 count. Shafir and Goodall scored to give UT a three-point lead, but Prochaska connected on a driving layup at the nine-minute mark, then drilled a three-pointer immediately out of the eight-minute media timeout. BG's lead was 45-43.
Shafir tied the game with a layup, but Prochaska, seemingly trapped on the baseline, hit Hennegan with a jump pass. Hennegan's layup with 6:20 left gave the Falcons the lead for good.
UT threw the ball away and took a timeout, and Prochaska dribbled around the arc for an interminable length of time before spotting up for, and knocking down, a shot from long range. The triple gave the Falcons a 50-45 lead with 5:38 remaining.
Mays made two free throws to cut the lead to three pointer, but each team then failed to score on the next three possessions. The final possession in that six-possession stretch ended when Nurse stole the ball from Williams in BG's end of the court and sank a transition layup after a nifty athletic play to avoid the pursuing Williams. The lead was five points once again with 3:34 left.
Mays missed two free throws out of the game's final media timeout, but the Rocket senior hit her fourth three-pointer of the game with 2:48 left, cutting BG's advantage to 52-50.
After a BGSU miss on the ensuing possession, Shafir drove the lane and was fouled with 2:10 left. She split her charity tosses to get UT within a single point.
Prochaska, however, hit a tough runner with 1:45 left, but a loose ball on UT's next possession bounced directly to Goodall under the basket, and her layup but BG's lead to 54-53 with 1:26 remaining.
Uhl hit a one-handed quasi-hook shot after an inbounds pass from Pontius, and Breske smothered a shot attempt by Shafir on the next possession. The senior co-captain came up with the rebound, giving the ball back to the Brown and Orange.
Mays fouled Prochaska on a drive to the basket, and the BG junior converted a pair of free throws with 44.9 seconds left for a 58-53 lead.
Williams missed a three-point try and Uhl came up with the rebound, quickly firing a pass to Nurse. The Falcon senior was fouled with 26.7 seconds remaining and hit both ends of her one-and-one opportunity.
With time running out on the Rockets, Shafir fired a long three-point try that was off the mark, and Pontius was fouled after corralling the rebound. Her free throws with 9.0 seconds left closed the scoring.
Shafir missed a final shot attempt and Prochaska came up with the ball as time ran out and the Falcons celebrated a conference tourney title.
After displaying a balanced scoring attack in each of the first two MAC Tournament games, the Falcons saw Prochaska score nearly half of the team's points on Saturday. Her 29-point total was a season high for a BGSU player, and was the most since last year's MAC Tournament semifinal game vs. UT, when junior Tracy Pontius went off for 32 points.
The Falcons, as mentioned, earn the MAC's automatic bid to the 2010 NCAA Championships. BGSU will find out its tournament seed, site and opponent on Monday night (March 15), as ESPN will present the exclusive live announcement of the 64-team NCAA Tournament field as part of Selection Monday. The show will air at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time.
A FEW QUICK FALCON NOTES
* The Falcons, as mentioned, have won 10 MAC Tournament titles, the most of any conference school ... Toledo is second with seven tourney crowns.
* BGSU now leads Toledo, 41-26, in the all-time series between the teams ... the Falcons are 8-3 against the Rockets in the MAC Tournament, including a perfect 3-0 mark in the championship game ... BG and UT also met in the title game in 1989 and 1994.
* The Falcons are 4-0 vs. the Rockets in MAC Tournament meetings in the Curt Miller Era ... the teams have met in the league tourney in four of the last five seasons.
* Overall, BGSU is now 10-2 in MAC Championship games, and the Falcons have an all-time MAC Tournament record of 39-16 (.709) ... in addition to owning the most tournament championships, BGSU now has the highest league tourney winning percentage among all MAC institutions ... the Falcons trailed Toledo (now 43-19, .694) in that category before downing the Rockets on Saturday.
* Saturday's game marked the first time in five years that BGSU played a MAC Tournament game against a team that had defeated them in the regular season ... the last such games came in the 2005 tourney ... that year, the Falcons went 13-3 in the regular season, losing twice to Eastern Michigan and once to Kent State ... but, the Falcons downed EMU in the semifinals before beating KSU in the championship, for the first tourney title in the Miller Era.
* Junior Lauren Prochaska has moved into third place on the BGSU career scoring list ... with a season-high total of 29 points vs. the Rockets, Prochaska now has 1,680 points in 101 games at BGSU ... she has moved past Sara Puthoff on that list, and now trails only Jackie Motycka and Ali Mann.
BGSU CAREER SCORING
1 - Jackie Motycka (2,122 pts. from 1985-89)
2 - Ali Mann (1,825 pts. from 2003-07)
3 - Lauren Prochaska (1,680 pts.)
4 - Sara Puthoff (1,678 pts. from 1994-98)
5 - Kate Achter (1,580 pts. from 2004-08)
* BGSU is now 18-5 in the MAC Tournament under Curt Miller, including an 18-3 mark in the last seven years ... the Falcons are 17-4 all-time in games played at Gund/Quicken Loans Arena, including a 17-3 record under Miller at the facility.
* The Falcons went on a 17-2 run to end the first half ... that run came after former Falcon Kate Achter won the cup race, part of an on-court promotion during the eight-minute media timeout ... Achter was named the MAC Tournament MVP on the same court in 2005.
* Saturday was a pretty good day for the Albert family of Brighton, Mich. ... Chelsea Albert, of course, is a junior on the 2010 MAC regular-season and tournament champions ... on the same day that the Falcons clinched a trip to the NCAA Tournament, Vermont won the America East Conference tourney title with a 55-50 win over nationally-ranked Hartford ... Chelsea's younger sister, Morgan, is a freshman on the Vermont women's basketball team.
Amy Velasco, Lexi Fleming, & Coach Chmiel Postgame Interview (Mar. 5, 2025)
Thursday, March 06
Paige Kohler, Coach Chmiel, & Amy Velasco Postgame Interview (Feb. 26, 2025)
Thursday, February 27
In the Paint: Lexxus Graham-Blincoe
Wednesday, February 26
Erika Porter, Amy Velasco, & Coach Chmiel Postgame Interview (Feb. 22, 2025)
Sunday, February 23