Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
EASTERN MICHIGAN (Semifinal)
BGSU Advances to MAC Tournament Title Game with 77-57 Win over EMU
March 11, 2005 | Women's Basketball
March 11, 2005
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CLEVELAND, Ohio - Trailing by a point at halftime, the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team held Eastern Michigan to just 22 second-half points en route to a 77-57 win Friday afternoon (March 11). The game, a semifinal contest in the Kraft Mid-American Conference Tournament, was held at Gund Arena.
With the win, the Falcons improve to 22-7 on the season, and BGSU advances to Saturday's (March 12) championship game for the second consecutive year. The Falcons, the tourney's top seed, will meet second-seeded Kent State University, a 73-57 winner over Marshall University in Friday's second game.
EMU drops to 23-7 on the year.
Sophomore Ali Mann had 19 points to pace three BGSU double-digit scorers. Freshman Kate Achter had 17 points and a game-high six assists, while sophomore Liz Honegger scored 15 points in the win.
Eastern Michigan got a game-high 20 points from Ryan Coleman, who played all 40 minutes, along with 18 points from Nikki Knapp.
The opening half featured six ties and seven lead changes. The Falcons got on the board first, via a Mann jumper, and the sophomore scored BGSU's first six points. The Eagles answered Mann's first jumper with a Coleman three, and another Coleman triple at the 15:44 mark gave Eastern a 10-6 lead at the initial media timeout.
BGSU drew two early fouls on EMU point guard Erika Ford, with the second coming at 14:46, but the senior hit a trey less than a minute later to put Eastern ahead by a 13-8 count.
Senior Tene Lewis had back-to-back layups for the Falcons, the last on a slicing drive after a Mann offensive rebound. The Eagles went up by seven points, 21-14, on a Coleman layup with 11:06 remaining in the half, but jumpers by Mann and junior Casey McDowell were followed by an Achter three-pointer, and the game was tied with 6:46 left in the half.
The next two-plus minutes saw the game tied three more times, before a McDowell layup gave the Falcons a 29-27 edge. But, Annie Malatinsky countered with a three-ball with 2:21 on the clock.
Horne responded with a three-point play to give BG a two-point edge with 1:40 left, but Coleman knotted the score once again just 18 seconds later. An Achter layup put BG up, 34-32, with 27 seconds remaining in the half, and Ford was called for an offensive foul, her third foul of the afternoon, with 4.0 seconds left. The Falcons seemed to have momentum in their favor, but the half was not over.
As Achter dribbled the ball upcourt under pressure, she stepped out of bounds, giving the ball back to the Eagles with 1.1 seconds left. Sarah VanMetre made the Falcons pay for that turnover, taking the inbounds pass and banking home a long, turnaround three-point field goal at the buzzer. The officials upheld the three-ball after a video review, and the Eagles had a 35-34 halftime lead.
Coleman got the scoring started with a layup on the opening possession of the second half, but hoops by Honegger and Achter gave BG a 38-37 lead. Coleman responded with a trey, but Honegger scored again to knot the game at 40-all.
Melis Ulker hit a pair of free throws with 17:54 left, giving the Eagles a 42-40 margin, but the Falcons were about to go on a run.
McDowell's three-pointer with 17:36 on the clock gave BG the lead for good, and kicked off an 11-0 run over the next 4:23. A Mann free throw was followed by Honegger's straight-on three-ball, off an Achter pass, and the Eagles took a timeout.
Out of the TO, though, the Eagles missed a three-point try, and Mann was fouled and hit two charity tosses at the other end. A Carin Horne jumper upped the margin to 51-42 before Coleman finally stopped the BG run with another three-pointer.
A VanMetre steal and layup narrowed the gap to six points just a minute-and-a-half later, but Achter grabbed a rebound and hit a layup from a tough angle, and a steal by soph Megan Thorburn resulted in a Mann three from the right elbow, and the Falcons held a double-digit lead, 58-47, as EMU took time again.
A minute later, senior Kelly Kapferer hit a turnaround jumper from the right side, and the Falcons had hit 60 points for the first time in five games vs. EMU. BG held a 60-49 advantage with 10:30 left.
Lewis drew a foul on former high-school teammate Coleman, and the Falcon co-captain hit two free throws. Knapp hit a layup just prior to the eight-minute media timeout, then drained two free throws after the stoppage, cutting the lead to single digits at 62-53. But, the Eagles would score just four more points over the final 7:28.
The Eagles' Coleman was whistled for two fouls in a span of just 36 seconds, with Achter hitting a layup after the first and making a pair of tosses after the second. The latter foul, with 5:44 left, was Coleman's fourth.
Knapp scored at the 4:57 mark, but Honegger drained a left-side three after a pass from Achter, and the lead was 14 points.
BG got the ball back and Achter worked inside for a layup, a foul and the ensuing free throw with 4:06 on the clock. Another Honegger trey at the 3:17 mark gave the Falcons a 20-point lead, and the teams exchanged late buckets to provide the final score.
Horne and McDowell had nine points apiece, with Horne posting game-high totals of seven rebounds and seven steals. BGSU had 13 steals off of 21 EMU turnovers.
Lewis scored six points in 14 minutes off the bench, going 2-for-3 from the field and 2-of-2 from the line.
Mann and Achter had six rebounds apiece, as the Falcons held a 36-26 advantage in that category. BG grabbed 17 offensive boards, nearly matching the Eagles' total of 18 defensive rebounds.
BGSU shot 46.0 percent from the field in the game, making 29 field goals to Eastern's 19. The Eagles shot 42.2% on the day.
Honegger was 3-for-4 from three-point range, while Mann was 2-for-3 from long distance as the Falcons went 6-of-15 as a team. Eastern was 7-for-21 from beyond the arc, led by Coleman's four treys in seven tries.
The Falcons held a 36-22 advantage in points in the paint. BGSU led for nearly all of the second half after holding the lead for a total of just 59 seconds in the teams' first regular-season meeting and 20 seconds in the second meeting.
BGSU now readies for Saturday's (March 12) championship contest vs. the Golden Flashes. That game begins at 1:00 p.m. at Gund Arena, and will be televised by Fox Sports Net Ohio, Comcast Local in Michigan and Comcast SportsNet in the Chicagoland area.
