Saturday's Scoreboard
Ohio 84, Miami 70
Central Michigan 74, Northern Illinois 68
Buffalo 69, Bowling Green 68
Toledo 59, Eastern Michigan 55
Ball State 76, Western Michigan 69
Kent State 64, Akron 58
Stories Courtesy of MAC Sports Information
Ohio 84, Miami 70
Box Score
ATHENS, Ohio – Behind the second triple-double in Ohio women's basketball history, Ohio (13-7, 11-6 MAC) took down Miami (4-20, 3-17 MAC), 84-70, on Saturday afternoon at the Convocation Center. Senior guard Cece Hooks (Dayton, Ohio) had 31 points, 11 assists and 10 steals for her first career triple-double and Ohio's second as a program.
"I thought the 2,000 career points was absurd, and now there are two triple-doubles on the women's side," head coach Bob Boldon said. "I heard rumblings on the bench that she had eight steals at the start of the fourth quarter. I said to myself, you have to be kidding me. She's going to have a triple-double with steals. She had a dominant presence today. She does so many things that we take for granted, and we're going to look back in a couple of years and realize that nobody else is doing the things that she is doing. She just had consecutive 30 point games and didn't make a three-pointer in either game."
Hooks was 14-of-19 and added four rebounds in addition to her 31 points, 11 assists and 10 steals. The 11 assists and 10 steals were both career highs for Hooks. Hooks joins redshirt junior guard Erica Johnson (Mansfield, Ohio) as the only two players to record a triple-double in program history. Hooks was +19 in 36 minutes on the floor.
"I think it's very special, especially since my best friend is the other person with the triple-double," Hooks said. "We came in together and I think it is super special that we're the first two to do it."
The Bobcats shot a season-high 57.6 percent from the field after going 34-of-59. Ohio was 8-of-21 from the three-point line and 8-of-13 from the free-throw line. Miami was 25-of-51 (49.0 percent) from the field, 10-of-27 from three and 10-of-13 (76.9 percent) from the free-throw line.
Senior forward Gabby Burris (Baltimore, Ohio) added 15 points and five rebounds. In her return to the court, Johnson had 11 points and five assists in 21 minutes on the floor.
Redshirt junior guard Jasmine Hale (Cincinnati, Ohio) added nine points, while redshirt junior forward Abby Garnett (Golden, Colo.) added seven points. Freshman guard Kate Dennis (Rockford, Ill.) had a career-high five points.
Ohio forced 26 Miami turnovers and had 17 steals. Hooks' 11 steals was a career-high, while Garnett, redshirt freshman Madi Mace (Parkersburg, Ohio) and Johnson all had two swipes each.
The Bobcats outrebounded Miami, 30-25, with nine offensive rebounds. Mace had a game-high six rebounds.
Ohio is the No. 3 seed in the MAC Tournament and will take on Ball State in the fourth game of the day. The first game of the day begins at 11 a.m.
Central Michigan 74, Northern Illinois 68
Box Score
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – A little payback, some momentum, and a lot of memories.
Senior Micaela Kelly scored 25 points and the Central Michigan women's basketball team closed the regular season with a 74-68 Mid-American Conference victory over Northern Illinois on Saturday at McGuirk Arena.
The Chippewas celebrated Senior Day at McGuirk by nailing down second place in the MAC and the No. 2 seed for the MAC Tournament and they avenged a 31-point loss to the Huskies earlier this season.
"We took it personal," Kelly said of that Jan. 13 defeat in DeKalb, Ill. "Even though we had a bad start (today), it was about keep fighting; we wanted to leave our mark and how we wanted to be remembered on this court."
Molly Davis added 17 points and senior Maddy Watters added 14 for the Chippewas, who trailed by 19 points midway through the second quarter and it appeared that NIU might be on the way to posting a second blowout win over CMU this season.
The Chippewas bore down, cut their deficit to 10, 37-27, at halftime and then outscored the Huskies, 47-31, in the second half. CMU led just once, and that was 2-0, until a Davis jumper with 7:12 to play gave the Chippewas a 59-57 advantage.
NIU never regained the lead and CMU bumped its advantage to as many as eight points, 72-64, on another Davis jumper, this one with 1:50 to play.
CMU is 15-8, 13-6 MAC and will begin play in the league tournament against the Huskies, 12-11, 10-8, in a quarterfinal game on Wednesday, March 10, at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland. Tipoff will be at approximately 4 p.m.
"That was a good way to go out -- Senior Day," CMU coach Heather Oesterle said. "We ran into a little adversity in the first half. I thought our defense in to the second quarter and in the second half was much more aggressive. We kind of let them do whatever they wanted to in the first quarter. Really proud of the way we fought back. If you look at what they did to us at Northern, and for us to withstand their first quarter, I thought we did a good job battling."
The game gave the Chippewas a two-game win streak to close the regular season. They won in double overtime on Wednesday at Ball State with just eight players dressed – three of whom fouled out.
"The last two games I think we've really come together as a team," Oesterle said. "We have eight kids and they're all playing. It's kind of playing for each other at this point. I've really seen some good chemistry with the eight.
"We've had to grind out these last two games. It's not been easy. March is about that; you're going to have to grind out some games."
Buffalo 69, Bowling Green 68
Box Score
BOWLING GREEN, OH – The University at Buffalo women's basketball team closed out the regular season in thrilling fashion, defeating Bowling Green 69-68 in overtime at the Stroh Center on Saturday. With the win the Bulls clinched the #4 seed in the upcoming MAC Tournament as the Bulls improved to 14-8 on the season while finishing league play at 11-6.
Four Bulls scored in double figures for the second straight game, led by junior forward Keowa Walters who scored a career-high 18 points. Sophomore Dyaisha Fair scored 16 points to go along with three rebounds, three assists and two steals. Freshman Cheyenne McEvans scored 13 points to go with five rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocks and Summer Hemphill also scored in double figures with 10 points.
"To go on the road and beat a really good team gives us great energy leading into the MAC Tournament next week," said Hemphill. "It was a great win and I'm proud of the team for the way we kept our composure and played hard all the way through the final buzzer."
Senior Hanna Hall drilled a three on the opening possession for UB to jumpstart a 5-0 run and give the Bulls the early lead and later, back-to-back buckets by McEvans gave the Bulls a 13-5 lead and forced a BG timeout at the 5:31 mark. While the Bulls offense would stall, the defense remained stifling as UB held the Falcons without a field goal for the final five minutes of the quarter to take a 15-7 lead at the end of the first.
The Buffalo defense continued to swarm and the Bulls stayed aggressive on offense as they used a 10-0 run to start the second quarter to take a 25-7 lead at the 7:33 mark and UB would lead 25-11 at the media timeout. The Bulls then used a 6-0 run, capped by a pair of great finishes from Hemphill and Fair, to take a 31-11 lead at the 2:46 mark and UB would withstand a late BG run to take a 32-16 lead at the half.
The two teams would trade baskets to start the third quarter before Jazmine Young came up with the steal and found Fair for a transition bucket and Walters knocked down a mid-range jumper to give UB a 42-27 lead at the 4:04 mark. Walters would continue to heat up as she scored on back-to-back possessions to give the Bulls a 46-29 lead with just over a minute to play in the quarter and Buffalo would lead 48-34 at the end of the third.
The Falcons would open the fourth quarter on a 9-2 run to cut the UB lead to 50-43 at the 7:12 mark before McEvans stopped the run with an and-one to put the Bulls back up by 10. The Falcons would continue to heat up as they used an 11-0 run to take a 54-53 lead at the 4:04 mark before Walters stopped the bleeding with a turnaround jumper to put the Bulls back on top, 55-54. Later with the game tied at 59 with 13 seconds to play, the Bulls got a big stop as Kadie Hempling's three at the buzzer was off the mark and the game would go to overtime.
A pair of free throws from Fair gave UB a 64-63 lead with just over two minutes to play in extra time. Elissa Brett knocked down a three to give BG a 56-54 lead but Hemphill answered with a beautiful up and under move to tie the game 66-66 with 1:28 to play. Brett came up big again scoring a layup off glass to give BG a 68-66 lead with 1:18 to go but Fair came up big when the Bulls needed her most as McEvans came up with a steal and found Fair who converted the fastbreak layup to give the Bulls a 69-68 lead and the Buffalo defense would come up big with one final stop on BG's last possession to secure the victory.
The Bulls dominated the paint, scoring 50 points in the paint for the second straight game, while also turning nine steals into 10 fastbreak points. Buffalo also scored 20 points off of 15 BG turnovers.
"We are a very resilient team," said head coach Felisha Legette-Jack. "I thought Hanna commanded things in the early going and then Jazmine came in and did some fantastic things and Dyaisha did some special things but I think the X factor is Summer. I feel like we always have an opportunity to have success when Summer is out there. We are in the foxhole trying to build something special and do whatever we have to do to tell our story."
The Bulls will open up Mid-American Conference Tournament play on Wednesday afternoon in the MAC quarterfinals. The fourth-seeded Bulls will play #5 Kent State.
Toledo 59, Eastern Michigan 55
Box Score
TOLEDO, Ohio – Sophomore Quinesha Lockett scored 22 points to lead the University of Toledo women's basketball team to a 59-55 victory over Eastern Michigan in the Rockets' season finale in Savage Arena on Saturday.
The Rockets (12-12, 8-12 MAC) took the lead late in the first half and led by as many as 10 in the third quarter, but EMU (10-9, 7-7 MAC) wrestled the lead away in the final minutes to take a one-point advantage heading into the fourth. The final quarter was hotly contested, as neither team led by more than four points. Eastern Michigan had the ball with 18 seconds to go and trailing, 58-55, but committed a costly turnover. Sophomore Sophia Wiard then knocked down one of her two free throw attempts in the closing seconds to seal the win for the Rockets, who avenged their loss at Eastern Michigan earlier this season.
Lockett's 22 points was her 13th 20-point game of the season. She ends the year averaging 19.6 points per game, which ties her for seventh all-time in program history in single-season scoring average. The Omaha, Neb. native is now tied with Angela Drake, who averaged 19.6 points per game in the 1995-96 season. Lockett's 19.6 points per game is the highest scoring average by a Rocket since 1998-99 when Kim Knuth averaged 25.4 points per game.
Wiard added 13 points and six assists, while freshman Sammi Mikonowicz was close behind with 10 points. Freshman Khera Goss contributed a season-high five steals on Saturday.
Eastern Michigan was led offensively by Ce'Nara Skanes and her 17 points, while Areanna Combs (13) and Autumn Hudson (11) both reached double figures in scoring as well. Skanes led all players with 11 rebounds.
Ball State 76, Western Michigan 69
Box Score
MUNCIE, Ind. - Hard work and determination paid off for the Cardinals today as they sent their three seniors off on a high note by defeating Western Michigan Saturday afternoon in Worthen Arena.
"Today's contest was a slugfest", head coach Brady Sallee said. But the Cardinals' (14-10, 12-8 MAC) were resilient and outlasted Western Michigan (6-15, 5-14 MAC) by a score of 76-69.
After the game, Sallee said that Western Michigan came in very well prepared and he gave WMU's head coach Shane Clipfell a lot of credit for how well the Broncos played today.
Sallee was impressed with his team's ability to stay focused and stay in the moment to get the job done despite the Cardinals slow start.
Western Michigan controlled the tempo of the contest in the first 20 minutes of action.
But after intermission, Sallee must have said something in that locker room because BSU outscored WMU 47-33 in the second half.
Junior forward Thelma Dis Agustsdottir nailed a 3-pointer at the 8:23 mark that gave BSU a six-point (61-55) edge over the Broncos at the start of the fourth quarter.
Western Michigan rallied to take back a one-point lead (64-63) with 5:21 remaining.
Agustsdottir, then quickly answered with a 3-point basket which would entail put Ball State back into the driver's seat for the remainder of the ball game.
Ball State placed four players in double figures today with Agustsdottir leading the way with 19 points.
Not too far behind Agustsdottir, was redshirt sophomore guard Anna Clephane who chipped in 17 points. Senior forward Oshlynn Brown tallied 14 points and 17 rebounds for her 48th career double double while sophomore guard Sydney Freeman rounded out the double digit scoring with 11 points while also dishing out nine assists.
Prior to the contest, the Cardinals said good-bye to their three seniors' forward Oshlynn Brown, guard Katie Helgason and guard Maliah Howard-Bass.
The Ball State women's basketball team will now head to Cleveland, Ohio for the 2021 Mid-American Conference Tournament as the No. 6 seed. The Cardinals will face the No. 3 seed Ohio Bobcats in the last game of the quarterfinal round Wednesday night in Rocket Mortgage Field House.
For the most up-to-date news on the Ball State women's basketball team, please follow @BallStateSports, @BSUCoachBrady and @BallStateWBB.
Kent State 64, Akron 58
Box Score
KENT, Ohio — Kent State closed the regular season Saturday afternoon by defeating Akron, 64-58, in a Crystal Clinic Wagon Wheel Challenge matchup at the M.A.C. Center.
The Golden Flashes (11-8, 10-6 MAC) won the rebounding battle, 48-24, and recorded season-high totals in offensive rebounds (22) and second chance points (21). Junior Hannah Young led the effort on the glass with a career-high 15 rebounds, including seven on the offensive end.
Sophomore Nila Blackford shot an efficient 8-of-10 from the field and finished with a game-high 21 points while battling foul trouble and playing only 21 minutes. Sophomore Katie Shumate added 15 points and six rebounds.
Kent State earned the No. 5 seed in the Mid-American Conference Tournament and will play No 4 seed Buffalo in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, March 10 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. The game is scheduled to tip 30 minutes following the conclusion of the 11 a.m. game featuring Bowling Green and Eastern Michigan.
