Bowling Green State University
Eastern Michigan (First Round)
Eagles Eliminate Falcons From MAC Tourney, 66-54
March 08, 2003 | Women's Basketball
March 8, 2003
YPSILANTI, Mich. - Host Eastern Michigan University shot over 53 percent in the second half and pulled away in the late going, en route to a 66-54 win over the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team Saturday night (March 8). The game, a first-round contest in the Mid-American Conference Tournament, was held at the Convocation Center.
With the win, the Eagles improve to 13-15 on the season. EMU, the seventh seed in the 13-team tournament, advances to the quarterfinal round and will meet second-seeded Miami University. The 10th-seeded Falcons see their season come to an end with a 12-16 record.
As was the case numerous times in her career, senior Francine Miller led the Falcons in scoring, with 21 points on the night. Miller also paced the Brown and Orange in rebounding, with nine. Junior Stefanie Wenzel added 11 points off the bench.
EMU got a game-high 26 points from Ryan Coleman, who also had a game-best 10 rebounds. Teammates Abby Wiseman and Melis Ulker joined Coleman in double digits with 17 and 11 points, respectively.
The game was close throughout, as neither team had more than a five-point lead in the first 27-plus minutes. The Falcons got off to a slow start, turning the ball over on the first two possessions of the game, and scoring only two points in the first 4:47. But, a pair of free throws from Miller, followed by two tosses from senior Megan Jerome, tied the game, 6-6, at the 13:54 mark.
EMU took the lead on a Wiseman layup, but a Miller layup at the other end tied the score. Then, junior Lindsay Austin fed Miller for a three-pointer, and Austin picked Erika Ford's pocket and went in all alone for a breakaway layup to give BG a 13-8 lead with 11:22 left in the half.
The Eagles battled back to tie the score at 15-15, the third of four first-half deadlocks. BG regained a five-point lead at 22-17, before the Eagles went on a 7-0 run, capped by a Coleman three-point play with 2:09 left before the intermission. Miller tied the score with a jumper with 35 seconds left, but Coleman hit with five seconds to go in the half, giving EMU a 26-24 lead at the break.
In the second half, the Falcons took the lead with three early points. Then, after an Ulker layup, Austin hit a three-pointer to give the Brown and Orange a 30-28 lead at the 17:15 mark. The Eagles responded with a Wiseman three-point play to regain the lead.
Moments later, a Miller trey gave the Falcons a 35-33 lead, but Coleman got an offensive rebound and putback to tie the score. Freshman Nikki Knapp hit a layup to give the hosts the lead, but a Jerome layup at the 13:47 juncture tied the score at 37-37. But, Jerome's shot proved to be BG's last basket until the final minute of the game.
EMU went on a 7-0 run, capped by a Coleman triple at 12:23, to take a 44-37 margin, the largest of the game to that point. The Brown and Orange battled back to within two points on three occasions, going 6-of-6 from the free-throw line over the next few minutes. The visitors were within a bucket, at 53-51, after a pair of Wenzel charity tosses with 5:54 remaining in the game. But, Coleman hit a pair of baskets to start another 7-0 run, and the hosts held the Falcons without a point for almost exactly five minutes. BG missed eight consecutive shots from the floor during that time.
After Coleman's first hoop during the 7-0 run, the Eagles got a defensive stop at the other end, and Coleman's next basket came after EMU got a pair of offensive rebounds on the ensuing possession.
With the score still 57-51, a Miller three-point attempt was halfway down before rattling in and out with 3:24 remaining. The Eagles grabbed the rebound and, after a media timeout, got an Ulker jumper as the shot clock expired, upping the lead to eight points with 2:49 left in the game.
Coleman added a free throw with 1:08 left, before the Falcons finally broke the scoreless spell on a free throw by senior Karen Stocz with 54.8 seconds left. Ford split a pair of tosses with 42.7 seconds left, giving EMU a nine-point lead, before Griech scored the Falcons' first field goal in a 13:12 span. But, it was too little, too late as Coleman made four more free throws to up the lead to double digits. The final 12-point margin was the largest of the contest.
Eastern made 15-of-28 shots (.536) in the second half en route to a .446 field-goal percentage for the game. The Falcons shot just .271 for the game, making 16 field goals in 59 attempts on the evening. BGSU held a slight advantage in both three-point field goals and free throws made, going 4-of-19 (.211) from beyond the arc and 18-of-21 (.857) from the line. Miller made two of BG's four treys, and went 7-of-8 from the stripe, while Wenzel made all six of her free-throw attempts.
EMU made two triples, both by Coleman, on the night, and the Eagles shot .286 (2-of-7) from long distance. The hosts made 14-of-22 free throws (.636), led by Coleman's 8-of-9 night. The hosts held a 43-34 rebounding advantage.
In addition to her 11 points, Wenzel tied for second on the Falcons with six rebounds. Three of those boards came at the offensive end. Jerome had eight points and, like Wenzel had three offensive rebounds and six total caroms on the night. Austin had seven points, five rebounds and a game-high four steals, while leading BG with three assists.
The contest marked the end of the playing careers of four Falcons -- Miller, Griech, Jerome and Stocz. Miller finishes her stellar tenure in the Brown and Orange with a career total of 1,574 points, ranking her third on the BGSU all-time scoring list. She also finishes third in school annals in career scoring average, with 14.31 points per game.
Miller hit double digits in scoring in 79 of her 110 career games, including 29 outings of 20-plus points. She finished her career by scoring a total of 176 points over her last nine games, an average of 19.6 points per contest.
Griech, who was saddled with foul trouble Saturday night and finished with just two points, ends her career ranked 18th in school history in scoring. She had a total of 923 career points as a Falcon, and set the school record with 491 three-point field goals attempted. Miller (171) and Griech (168) end their careers ranked second and third, respectively, on the school list for successful three point field goals made, with Miller falling just two treys shy of Sara Puthoff's school record.
Jerome had two of her finer games of the season in the last two contests, both against EMU. She started both games, averaging 34.5 minutes, and had 14 points and 10 boards over the two games. Stocz, after averaging just 1.6 points per game over the first half of the MAC schedule, averaged 6.2 points and 3.9 rebounds over the final nine games of the year, including 8.5 ppg and 4.0 rpg in the two games vs. EMU.
The game marked the teams' second meeting in a five-day span. The Falcons had posted a 70-69 home victory in the final game of the regular season Tuesday (March 4).
BGSU head coach Curt Miller ends his second season with a record of 21-35. Miller and his staff had seven underclass players on the 2002-03 squad, plus one transfer (Casey McDowell) who sat out the season under NCAA transfer rules. Miller and his staff signed six players to National Letters of Intent during the early signing period in November, and plan to add at least one additional signee during the late period.
BGSU's total of 12 wins is the most since the 1998-99 team went 13-14.
