Akron 69, Western Michigan 66
Buffalo 68. Toledo 61
Central Michigan 57, Bowling Green 54
Eastern Michigan 70, Kent State 53
Northern Illinois 60, Miami 49
Courtesy of home MAC Athletic Communications Departments
Akron 69, Western Michigan 66
AKRON, Ohio – It was a night of timely triples from Akron sophomore Hannah Plybon (Orrville, Ohio) as she hit a long ball with the game locked in a 64-all tie and 20 seconds to play to give the Zips' women's basketball team the edge they needed Wednesday night to defeat Mid-American Conference Western Division leader Western Michigan (14-7, 7-3 MAC), 69-66, at James A. Rhodes Arena.
After Akron (17-4, 7-3 MAC) held the lead for nearly nine-straight minutes, a three-point play from the Bronco's Miracle Woods tied the game at 62-all with 1:20 remaining.
Junior Anita Brown (Warren, Ohio) grabbed an offensive board and got fouled on the ensuing possession before sinking a pair of free throws for a 64-62 Akron lead with 55 seconds to play.
Western Michigan posted two free throws with 37 seconds left to knot the game at 64-all, setting up Plybon's clutch perimeter play.
Freshman Kerri McMahan (Novi, Mich.) clinched the victory for Akron making a pair of free throws with four seconds remaining in the game to provide the final 69-66 advantage. She finished the affair dishing out a team-high five assists.
Brown led the Zips in scoring with 21 points. She matched her offensive performance with six boards, four of which came on the defensive end.
Plybon's 5-of-9 shooting effort from beyond the arc helped her end the night with 19 points, while posting five rebounds.
Senior Sina King (Waterford, Ohio) and junior DiAndra Gibson (Ravenna, Ohio) both fell one rebound shy of collecting a double-double. King's 12 total points came with nine rebounds, while Gibson also ended the game with nine rebounds, seven on the defensive glass. Gibson posted eight total points.
Despite King and Gibson's rebounding effort, the teams ended the game locked in a 38-38 rebounding tie.
Marquisha Harris led the Broncos in scoring with 22 points and a team-high seven boards.
The Zips connected on 41.7 percent of their shots on the evening, including a 41.2 percent mark from downtown, making seven triples. Western Michigan posted a 42.4 percent shooting night.
The Broncos posted three quick turnovers to start the game, allowing Akron to get out to a 11-4 lead, with King responsible for six of Akron's points at the 16:46 mark.
The Zips then suffered from their own miscues as they were held scoreless for over five minutes, inhibited by four turnovers, two of which were as the result of steals by Western Michigan.
Akron remained in the lead despite the scoring drought when a Plybon triple fought off a one-point game to make it 13-10 with 11:20 to play.
Western Michigan scored seven uninterrupted points to take its first lead of the game, 14-13, with 9:37 left in the half. A feed from Brown inside the key to Gibson on a fastbreak tied the game at 17-17, before the Broncos took control again and took off on an 8-0 run for a game-high eight-point lead.
Back-to-back triples from Brown and Plybon locked the game into its second tie, this time at 25-25 at the 4:04 mark of the first period. Western Michigan narrowly outscored Akron through the end of the half as the Broncos held a 31-30 advantage at the intermission.
Gibson completed the three-point play for a 38-36 Akron lead with 16:04 to play. It was the Zips' first lead since the 10:43 mark of the first half.
Soon after, Akron relinquished the lead until a three-pointer from freshman Alli Ball (St. Louis, Mo.) gave the Zips a lead that stuck up through the final possessions.
Akron next travels to DeKalb, Ill., to battle Northern Illinois in a 6 p.m. ET tilt on Saturday, Feb 7. The game is set to air on ESPN3.
Buffalo 68. Toledo 61
BUFFALO, NY – The University at Buffalo, State University of New York women's basketball team posted its third straight win defeating Mid-American Conference opponent Toledo, 68-61, Wednesday night at Alumni Arena. For the third time this season, the Bulls trailed by nine at the half and battled back to win.
"This is a team that's ready to fight for something that's bigger than themselves," said third-year head coach Felisha Legette-Jack. "Today was indicative of – hopefully – what our February is going to look like."
UB trailed by as many as 10 in the second. Down 47-38 at 12:33, a Liisa Ups three on a Karin Moss feed tipped off a 20-2 run. The swing ate up seven minutes of clock, forcing the Rockets to burn a timeout. Toledo answered with nine straight to knot the game, 58-58, at 2:48. Kristen Sharkey and Ups pieced together five consecutive for a 63-58 gap at 1:14. The Rockets cut within two with a trey at the one-minute mark, but the Bulls connected on five free throws down the stretch to seal the come-from-behind victory.
Toledo shot 48.4 percent in the first half and led for 17:28. UB held an early edge, 16-8, on a 6-0 run at 11:17, but the Rockets scored 19 of the next 21 points to power ahead. The squads each scored 11 points over the last four minutes of the first for a 38-29 UT advantage at intermission.
"Every day somebody different is stepping up. That's the beauty of our team. Whenever we're down at one position, somebody steps up. Tonight it was Karin (Moss) and Liisa (Ups).
Sharkey and fellow senior captain Christa Baccas led the game statistically. Sharkey had 26 points, her fifth 20-point game of the season and second straight, and added eight boards. She moved into 15th place all-time with 1,103 points. Baccas tallied her third double-double of the season and 14th of her career with 11 points and a contest-best 10 rebounds, surpassing 800 career boards. She sits fifth in program history with 809. The duo made two blocks apiece. Sharkey added three assists and a pair of steals.
UB matched a season-high 19 assists, with the first 19 also coming against the Rockets. Moss met a career-high five assists for the second straight game, while junior Mackenzie Loesing and freshman Stephanie Reid added four each. Moss made a game-high four steals and Loesing chipped in 12 points and five boards. Ups added a collegiate-best five rebounds, including a clutch offensive grab with 34 ticks lingering in the game.
Inma Zanoguera and Ana Capotosto led the Rockets with 18 each. Zanoguera and Sophie Reecher grabbed eight boards apeice and Janice Monakana tallied a team-best nine. Zanoguera dished out six assists and Brenae Harris five.
The teams were deadlocked on the boards, 42-42. UB committed just 12 turnovers and made nine steals. UT had 14 and six, respectively.
UB, who has won two of the last three meetings, shot 41.5 percent for the game, highlighted by a 50.0 percent second-half showing. Toledo made good on 35.6 percent of all attempts.
The Bulls will return to Alumni Arena on Saturday for a 2 pm game against MAC East rival Bowling Green.
Central Michigan 57, Bowling Green 54
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Bowling Green State University women's basketball senior Deborah Hoekstra and her teammates battled Mid-American Conference favorite Central Michigan University right down to the wire Wednesday night (Feb. 4), but the Chippewas escaped the Stroh Center with a 57-54 win.
Hoekstra scored 19 points for the Falcons (9-12, 2-8 Mid-American Conference), hitting a career-high five three-point field goals. The East Lansing, Mich., native made treys on back-to-back possessions to cut a seven-point deficit, the largest of the game, down to a single point with 1:20 to go. But, the Chippewas (11-9, 6-3 MAC) extended that lead back out to three points, then got key defensive stops on back-to-back possessions to eke out the road win.
Wednesday's game was tied on five occasions, and featured no fewer than 16 lead changes. Neither team, as mentioned, ever led by more than seven points.
"What a game," said BGSU head coach Jennifer Roos. "It came down to the last possession, there were 16 lead changes, and I think there were twice as many floor burns by both teams. Everybody was hustling throughout the game, and I was really proud of our kids."
Da'Jourie Turner had a game-high 21 points for the Chippewas, who were picked to win the MAC's West Division and league tournament titles in the preseason coaches' poll, while Crystal Bradford had 10 points and 11 rebounds. The Falcons allowed Bradford, CMU's career scoring and rebounding leader, to make just five field goals in 17 attempts, and held her scoreless in the opening half.
Junior Miriam Justinger joined Hoekstra in double digits for the Falcons, with 14 points on the night. Freshman Rachel Myers added eight points and a team-high four assists, while redshirt freshman Kennedy Kirkpatrick scored seven points and true freshman Sarah Baer six.
The Falcons took a 44-40 lead with 8:20 to go on Baer's second layup in as many BG possessions, but Central scored the game's next seven points as part of a 13-2 run. Bradford capped that run with a jumper at the 4:48 mark, giving the visitors a 53-46 lead.
Neither team scored again until just over two minutes remained, when Hoekstra took a Justinger pass and knocked down a triple try from the right wing. The Chippewas missed a shot on the next possession, with Hoekstra coming up with the rebound. At the other end of the court, an inbounds pass by Myers resulted in another Hoekstra trey, and Central's lead was 53-52 with 1:20 to go.
Turner missed a three-point try, but Bradford corralled the rebound and scored with 57.6 seconds to go. Justinger drove into the lane and scored on a one-handed shot with 34.2 seconds left, cutting CMU's lead to 55-54.
The Falcons, having committed just four fouls in the first 19-plus minutes of the half, fouled three times in roughly four seconds to send the Chippewas to the line. Turner, however, hit both ends of a one-and-one opportunity with 23.0 seconds on the clock, giving her team a three-point advantage.
At the other end of the court, Hoekstra's contested three-point try was off the mark, and CMU's Jas'Mine Bracey rebounded the ball and was fouled by Hoekstra with 12.3 seconds remaining. Bracey missed the front end of a one-and-one, however, and freshman Haley Puk rebounded the ball.
The Falcons came downcourt, and Myers attempted to drive and kick the ball to a teammate for a three-point try. Just as Myers looked to pass the ball to the wing, however, Bradford stripped it away from her, and the clock ran out.
BGSU went 10-for-23 from three-point range, including a 6-of-11 effort from beyond the arc in the second half. Hoekstra was 2-for-4 from long distance in the first half and 3-for-5 in the second.
BG spotted the Chippewas the game's first two points, as Turner hit a layup just eight seconds into the contest. But, CMU would not score for a span of nearly three-and-a-half minutes after that, as the Brown and Orange reeled off seven-straight points. Myers got the Falcons on the board with a pull-up jumper, and Justinger scored five-straight points, including the three-pointer that made it a 7-2 game.
Central battled back to within a point, but Hoekstra's long-distance shot gave BG a 10-6 lead, and the senior scored in a driving layup on BG's next possession, for a 12-9 advantage. The Chippewas got back-to-back Bracey buckets to take a 17-14 lead, however, and after a timeout, Turner alertly stole a pass in BG's end of the court and hit a wide-open layup for a five-point margin with 7:08 left in the half.
Kirkpatrick, however, made a pair of free throws and -- after nearly three minutes of scoreless basketball -- the redshirt freshman took Baer's kick-out pass and drilled a three-pointer to tie the game, 19-19, with 3:31 left in the half. Bracey answered with a layup, but Kirkpatrick fed Hoekstra for a corner three on BG's next possession, and the Falcons led, 22-21. A Lorreal Jones jumper gave the visitors a one-point lead at the intermission.
Hoekstra's driving layup opened the second-half scoring and gave the Falcons the lead. Bradford, after missing her first seven shot attempts of the night, banked home a shot at the 17:57 mark, but Hoekstra spotted Myers in front of the Falcons' bench, and the freshman's corner three gave the Brown and Orange a 27-25 lead.
Kerby Tamm answered with a three-pointer of her own, and Tinara Moore followed with a layup, but a Justinger trey tied the score at 30-30 with 16:21 to go. Then, Myers again took a Hoekstra pass and drilled a shot from behind the three-point line, giving the Brown and Orange a 33-30 advantage.
Back-to-back layups by Turner, with the second one coming after a nifty crossover dribble in transition, gave CMU the lead once again, and a Jones layup put the visitors ahead, 36-33. Justinger hit a foul-line jumper, however, and Kirkpatrick's layup gave BG the lead once again.
Bradford quickly scored at the other end, but Hoekstra knocked down a three-point attempt with just over nine minutes remaining, putting the Falcons up by a 40-38 count. Turner's free throws tied the game, but Myers pounded the ball inside to Baer on back-to-back BG trips down the floor, giving the home team that 44-40 lead with 8:20 on the clock.
The Falcons shot 44.4 percent from the floor in the second half and an even 40% for the game. BG held CMU to a 37.5% success rate, and the Chippewas were just 3-of-17 from three-point land.
Hoekstra went 5-of-9 from beyond the arc, while Justinger and Myers hit two long-distance shots apiece and Kirkpatrick one.
"We hit 10 threes tonight," said Roos. "This was a game where they were going 2-by-2-by-2 with their inside game, and we were going 3-by-3-by-3. You can look at the differential and see that they doubled our points in the paint, but we almost tripled their total from the arc. I thought our kids responded well and made some big shots. We wanted to control tempo and make them go 2-by-2, and I thought we did that.
"It's hard, because we had our chances to win, but again, I'm really proud of our kids."
BGSU hits the road this weekend, heading to Western New York for a Saturday (Feb. 7) game against the University at Buffalo. That game begins at 2:00 p.m. and will be broadcast by WBGU-FM 88.1 (audio) and ESPN3.com (video).
Eastern Michigan 70, Kent State 53
KENT, Ohio – Turnovers hurt Kent State (3-17, 1-8), as it was unable to keep up with visiting Eastern Michigan (11-9, 4-5) in a 70-53 loss.
The Golden Flashes struggled with ball control early, with a few shot clock violations due to the Eagles' oppressive defense. On the other end, Eastern Michigan took advantage of a successful three-point game and offensive rebounds giving them second chances to gain an early lead. Half way through the first the visitors were able to jump out to a 20-9 lead, forcing the Golden Flashes to call a timeout.
Eastern Michigan made seven three-point shots in the first half and scored nearly half its points (19 of 39) off of 13 Kent State turnovers to take a 39-24 lead at the intermission.
Back-to-back-to-back baskets by the Golden Flashes gave them a 6-0 run out of the break, forcing the Eagles to call a timeout to try to slow the comeback.
Kent State continued its charge and brought the lead within seven after Melanee Stubbs grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back in the net. However, Eastern Michigan soared on to take a 17-point lead to take a 70-53 victory.
The Flashes shot better than the Eagles in the game and rebounds were nearly even, but 23 points came on 21 turnovers for the visitors.
Larissa Lurken led in scoring with 16 points while CiCi Shannon picked up 15 rebounds and blocked four shots. Melanee Stubbs netted 14 points on a night, a point shy of her career high.
Kent State travels to MAC-East Division rival Ohio this Saturday for a 7 p.m. game.
Northern Illinois 60, Miami 49
DeKALB - Overcoming a seven point halftime deficit, the NIU Huskies (9-10, 5-4 MAC) outscored Miami University (3-18, 0-10 MAC) by 18 points in the second half to defeat the RedHawks, 60-49. Freshmen Kelly Smith (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead) and Renee Sladek (Merrill, Wis./Merrill) both recorded double-doubles in the game, each individuals second of the season.
Smith finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds, including seven on the offensive glass while Sladek accounted for 14 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Ally Lehman (Nineveh, Ind.) also scored 15 points, including six in the final minutes from the free throw line, while adding eight rebounds, five assists and three steals.
“I thought we started out the game very flat, especially on the defensive end which has to be our identity. We just did a great job turning it all around in the second half,” said Head Coach Kathi Bennett.
After opening the first stanza in a 4-3 deficit, the Huskies would go on a 10-0 run and take a 13-4 lead over the RedHawks with 12:31 on the clock. Miami University would respond with a 17-6 run over the next 7:40 to takeover the lead, 23-18. The RedHawks would keep that lead into halftime as the Huskies trailed, 29-22.
MU posted a strong shooting performance in the half as it was 12-of-27 (.444) from the field while NIU was 9-for-28 (.321) shooting in the stanza. Sladek led the Huskies with six points while Lehman grabbed six rebound with five points in the period. Smith also scored five points on the night.
“I told the team that we needed to have tremendous energy on the defensive side of things. It’s who we are and if we don’t play hard on that side of the floor, we don’t have a chance to win and so we had to get after it on that end,” Bennett said on what it would take for the team to come back in the second half.
Thanks in part to consecutive stops, Smith opened the half scoring eight points to become the first Huskie to break into double digit scoring. Sladek followed up with four points as the two freshmen combined to outscore the RedHawks, 12-2, and put NIU back on top, 34-31.
Miami (Ohio) would take one last crack at the lead as it went up 35-34 with 11:50 left but a jumper by Lehman put NIU back on top, 36-35. A trey from Lacia Gorman (Fort Wayne, Ind./Wayne) extended the Huskies lead to four and put NIU back in the drivers seat, which allowed the team to extend their lead to 13 points in the final minutes of the game.
The Huskies were 12-for-12 at the free throw line after opening the game 3-of-9 from the charity stripe. NIU also improved its field goal percentage in the second half as it was 12-for-29 for a mark of .414. Miami (Ohio) was 8-of-25 from the field in the second for a mark of .320.
Gorman finished the game with six points as she was 2-for-2 behind the three-point line to lead the Huskie bench in points. Sladek’s 15 points tied her career-high for the third time this season, last doing so at Ball State on Jan. 31.
The double-doubles by Smith and Sladek marked the second-time this season that two NIU players registered such a performance, doing so versus Eastern Michigan in the MAC opener on Jan. 3.
Defensively, Amanda Corral (Hobart, Ind./Hobart) had a career-high three blocks in the game. The RedHawks became the fifth NIU opponent to score less than 50 points in a game this season, joining Missouri, SIUE, Eastern Michigan and Kent State. The Huskies three-straight MAC wins are the most since Jan. 2009.
Ball State’s Kayla Brown led all scorers in the game with 21 points on 9-of-15 shooting.
The Huskies will return to action Saturday afternoon versus Akron as NIU will play the first game of a doubleheader with the men. Tipoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. Central.
