March 12, 2005
Recap |
Final Stats |
Associated Press story |
Photo Gallery
CLEVELAND, Ohio -
Some notes, numbers and nuggets from Saturday's MAC Tournament championship game, courtesy the MAC office...
Bowling Green wins the MAC Tournament for the seventh time in school history and advances to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1994 when the Falcons defeated Toledo 74-63. With the victory, Bowling Green ties Toledo for the most MAC Tournament titles (seven).
Bowling Green is the fifth different MAC Tournament champ in the last five years and the third time in a row a MAC West Division team has won the title.
The championship game attendance of 4,058 ranks as the sixth-highest total for a title contest.
Kent State's Lindsay Shearer set a MAC Tournament, regular season, and school record with 44 points, breaking former Golden Flash Ann Forbes' mark of 43 points taken against Bowling Green in the 1993 MAC Tournament semifinal. Shearer also connected on a tournament-record 17 field goals (in 23 attempts), topping Forbes' 15.
Shearer's performance also is the second-highest total in the NCAA women's ranks this season behind only Mississippi State's Tan White who tallied 47 points against Vanderbilt (2-3-05.)
Shearer finished the tournament with 72 points, tying Toledo's Kim Knuth (1999) and Eastern Michigan's Laurie Byrd (1982) for second on the all-time tournament list. Western Michigan's Casey Rost holds the record with 80 points scored over four games in 2003.
Bowling Green's 12 3-pointers in the game ranks as the second-most in tournament history behind Western Michigan's 17 in 2000 (vs. BGSU.) The Falcons' 27 3s in the tournament tied the 2000 Eastern Michigan squad for the second-most in tournament history. Ball State holds the record with 29 3s made in 2002.
Bowling Green also is now 7-1 all-time in MAC finals while Kent State falls to 3-7 all-time. The Falcons and Golden Flashes met once previously in the MAC Championship game, with Bowling Green winning 96-68 in 1993. BGSU holds a 4-2 edge over KSU all-time in MAC tourney games.
Bowling Green's win over Kent State breaks a 12-game losing streak against the Golden Flashes and is just their second win in its last 19 games against the Golden Flashes.
Bowling Green's Kate Achter becomes the fourth freshman to garner tournament MVP honors. (Tracy Well, WMU-1985; Dana Drew, UT-1991 and Andrea Csaszar, KSU-2002)
Achter's 21 points in the championship game highlighted an impressive weekend which saw her average 18 points over the three Falcon wins. Achter also finished the tournament with a perfect performance from the free throw line (20-of-20), tying five others including teammate Casey McDowell (10-of-10) and Kent State's Lindsay Shearer (17-of-17) for highest percentage. Both players joined Achter on the All-Tournament team, and were joined by Bowling Green's Liz Honegger and Kent State's Melissa DeGrate.
Casey McDowell tied Western Michigan's Curleta Harris (2003) for the MAC Tournament record with 11 3-pointers made.
Kent State's Lindsay Shearer and Melissa DeGrate are the first set of teammates to each score 30 points in the same MAC Tournament. DeGrate had 32 points in KSU's quarterfinal victory over Ohio.
The Falcons (23-7) have now won six in a row and 11 of their last 12, while the Golden Flashes (21-9) saw their nine-game winning streak come to an end.
With the win, Falcons coach Curt Miller has now beaten every MAC team. Miller had been 0-5 against Bob Lindsay's Golden Flashes prior to Saturday.
.png&type=webp)
