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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
AKRON
Women's Hoops Guarantees Post Season Bid With Historic Win at Akron
March 05, 2008 | Women's Basketball
March 5, 2008
AKRON, Ohio - Needing only 12 points entering the night to jump Liz Honegger on the all-time scoring list, senior Kate Achter tallied her third consecutive 20-point excursion on the court as the Bowling Green State University Falcons beat the Zips of the University of Akron, 69-54. With the victory, BGSU claims its historic fourth regular season Mid-American Conference crown; they are the only team in the history of MAC women's basketball to win four straight regular season titles in as many seasons.
Their regular season title also guarantees the team an extended season with at least a bid into the Women's Invitational Tournament (WNIT) if they can not pull out their fourth MAC Tournament Championship for the league's automatic invitation to the NCAA Tournament.
The Falcons will end the regular season winning 24-of-30 contests (24-6) and a 13-3 record in the conference. Akron on the other hand, drops to 7-23 in the regular season and 3-13 in the MAC.
In what was herald to be a battle of the MAC's top scoring freshman, BGSU's Lauren Prochaska was held to two points while Akron's Keyla Snowden and Kara Murphy finished with 12 and 16 respective marks.
Tara Breske and Bianca Hooten joined Achter scoring 20 and 11 points to round out the team leaders. Breske also pulled down eight rebounds and was 7-12 from the floor while Hooten was a career best 2-of-2 from the arc.
From the tip, Achter and Breske seemed to be destined for a high-scoring night as the two combined for the first four Orange and Brown points. Prochaska, who netted her lone bucket of the game at 17:49, broke up the Achter/Breske one-two punch, but with a lay-up by Achter at 17:20 the twosome went on a 14-5 run over Akron to put BG ahead 13 points (20-7) at the 11:32 mark. Yet, a Snodwen, Victoria Arndt, Snowden sequence from downtown quickly slashed that lead to a mere two buckets, 16-20, by 10:33.
The four point difference would be the closest the Zips would come within the Falcons as the visitors improved their score while holding Akron stagnant at 16 points.
Beginning with a Whitney Taylor triple at 10:17, the Falcons closed the half with a 21-6 routing that would leave Akron down 41-22 at the break. Through those 10-minutes in the first half, BGSU was 8-of-14 from the floor with Breske contributing six points.
As the teams headed to the locker room, Breske and Achter had already locked in a respective 14 and 16 points and were the only two players to have hit double figures. The sophomore post was 5-of-6 from inside the paint helping BGSU to 28 first half tallies in the lane; Akron had six at the time.
Bowling Green was also edging Akron off the glass with a 16-12 rebounding margin. In each category, offensive (10-8) and defensive (6-4), the Orange and Brown had managed to gain two additional rebounds.
BGSU was also out shooting their hosts 55.2% (16-29) to 36.4% (8-22) from the field.
The second half was begun much like the first with Breske scoring in the paint at 18:52 and the Falcons would keep Akron at bay with a 19-22 point benefit until reserve wing Bianca Hooten laid down the first of two three pointers at 10:26 to give BGSU its largest scoring margin at plus-24. Though Akron would chip at that lead and narrow it to 20 with a successful lay-up by Jessica Deville at 8:58, Hooten, with the help of Achter would run it back to 24 (59-35) with a made lay-up at 7:24 and then give BGSU its largest lead of the night, 25 points, after converting her bonus free throw.
Once again a Snowden three would make a quick dent into the scoreboard, but although Teresa Scott would lessen that point shortage to 18, it was Hooten who gave the Falcon back the 20-point cushion 21 seconds later, 63-42 at 5:10.
Five Akron free throws down the stretch aided as the Zips cut the negative margin to a 15 point final, 69-54. Murphy was a solid 4-of-4 from the line in that time. She went on to finish the contest going 10-of-11 from the freebie row.
In the battle of the second half, Akron proved to be more than a contender outscoring the Orange and Brown 16-12 in the paint and a lopsided 13-4 in the second chance column. The Zips also rallied to out rebound BGSU 41-34 accumulating a total of 18 second chance boards.
With the regular season now closed, Bowling Green will enjoy a bye in the first round of the MAC Tournament and will face the winner of Northern Illinois/Kent State contest. BGSU's first tournament game is scheduled for Tuesday (Mar. 11) at Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland at 8:00 p.m.
*FALCON NOTES*
*Bowling Green is 3-0 on Senior Day. Not only did they beat the University at Buffalo in Anderson Arena as the Falcon community celebrated the accomplishments of seniors Kate Achter and Whitney Taylor, but the Orange and Brown also stole Senior Day wins at Ohio and Akron.
*The Falcons combined for seven blocks as Tara Breske, Bianca Hooten and Chelsea Albert each swatted two while Kate Achter rejected one Akron shot attempt. Each met or saw a seasonal and career high.
*With their fourth consecutive MAC regular season championship, the Falcons top all other league programs with a count of nine titles. Toledo, who dominated the title race throughout the 1990's is a close second with seven including shared championship seasons; Kent State (5) and Miami (4) follow suit. Ball State, Ohio and Central Michigan round out the remainder of the programs with two a piece. Kent State's Bob Lindsay is the only active MAC head coach to have more regular season titles to his credit than head coach Curt Miller. Lindsay's tally rests at five while Miller is responsible for four.
*Bowling Green, normally the team which makes `that extra pass', finished the game with only eight assists - a number that Kate Achter has been known to single handedly accumulate on her own. As usual, the senior point guard led all players on the court yet only recorded three assists. The last time she earned less than seven contributers was Feb. 13, 2008 at Central Michigan; in Chippewa territory she dished just five. Furthermore January 26 marks the last time she tossed less than five helpers in MAC play. In Muncie, Ind. she recorded only three assists. Achter has a total of 205 assists this season; a mark which ranks as the 10th best single season showing by a MAC women's basketball student-athlete.
##BGSU WOMEN'S BASKETBALL##
