Bowling Green State University
Eastern Michigan (Championship)
Falcons Fall In Final, 65-56
March 13, 2004 | Women's Basketball
March 13, 2004
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CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team's run in the Mid-American Conference Tournament has come to an end. Eastern Michigan University dealt the Falcons a 65-56 loss in the championship game Saturday (March 13) afternoon at Gund Arena.
With the win, the second-seeded Eagles improve to 22-7, and advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.
Bowling Green, the fourth seed for the league tournament, is 21-10 on the year, and the Falcons hold out hope of receiving a bid in the WNIT. Both the NCAA and WNIT fields will be announced Sunday night (March 14).
The loss broke a season-long six-game winning streak for the Falcons, who were picked to finish sixth in the MAC's West Division.
Carin Horne had 17 points off the bench to lead all scorers, while freshman Ali Mann had 12 and senior co-captains Lindsay Austin and Stefanie Wenzel 10 apiece. Austin's final basket of the day moved her career total to 1,000, making her only the 18th player in school history to reach that plateau.
Ryan Coleman led EMU with 14 points, while Nikki Knapp had 12. Coleman was the tournament's MVP, and was joined on the all-tourney team by Knapp, Austin, Mann and Miami's Colleen Day.
The Falcons never led in the game, as the Eagles scored the first five points of the contest. BGSU scored the next four points on a pair of Mann free throws and a Horne jumper, but Eastern again scored five-straight points to take a 10-4 lead.
Mann responded with a layup at the 13:52 mark, and Wenzel followed with two charity tosses, making the score 10-8. But, after Mann's shot, the Falcons went nearly seven minutes without a field goal. EMU went on a 9-0 run to take a 24-9 lead with 7:59 remaining in the half.
The Falcons went without a point for 4:11, and BGSU was held without a field goal until a Horne jumper at the 7:02 mark.
That hoop sparked some subsequent shooting success, as the Falcons, after beginning the game by making only 2-of-17 shots, converted seven of the final 10 attempts beginning with that Horne shot.
Austin and junior Tene Lewis followed with layups to cut the EMU lead to eight points, at 24-16, with 5:47 left in the half, and the lead remained eight points at the half. Both teams were scoreless over the final 2:20 before the break.
The Falcons, after shooting just .296 (8-for-27) from the field in the first half, shot .448 after the intermission, making 13-of-29 field goals. But, BGSU had difficulty narrowing the gap. Eastern took a 14-point lead near the first media timeout of the half, and BG could not cut the Eagle lead to double digits until a Horne layup at the 10:49 mark made the score 51-43.
The Brown and Orange got the lead within five points on two occasions, the first coming on a jumper by junior Kelly Kapferer with 7:35 left. BG got a defensive stop, but the Falcons turned the ball right back over on the next possession.
With 4:56 remaining, the Falcons got a Wenzel layup on the fast break to make the score 55-50. But, Coleman hit a pair of free throws for Eastern, and a Marion Crandall layup restored a nine-point lead.
Horne nailed a three-point field goal off a Wenzel feed with 3:42 on the clock, and the Falcons were within six points. But, Sarah VanMetre scored 18 seconds later, putting EMU up by a 61-53 score.
After that layup, the Falcons would keep Eastern off the scoreboard until the game's final minute. But, the Eagles were equal to the task at their own defensive end. After Horne's layup, BG would not score again until a Wenzel trey with 12 seconds left. Eastern made only 4-of-10 free throws over the game's final 1:10, but it was enough to secure the victory.
For the game, EMU shot .429 from the field to the Falcons' .375. Eastern's balanced offensive attack saw no player score more than 14 points, but all seven players who saw action scored at least seven. Four players -- Crandall, VanMetre, Erika Ford and Melis Ulker -- scored eight points each.
For the Falcons, Horne had 10 points in the first half and seven in the second. She made 7-of-10 shots from the field.
Mann and fellow freshman Liz Honegger each grabbed eight rebounds as BG held a 39-35 advantage in that department. Austin had seven boards and three assists.
In addition to her 14 points, EMU's Coleman had a game-high nine rebounds and three steals.
BGSU committed 17 turnovers to Eastern's 10, yet the Falcons held a 12-8 advantage in points off turnovers. The Falcons went 10-of-13 from the free-throw line (.769), while the Eagles made only 11-of-24 shots (.458) from the stripe.
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