MAC Women’s Basketball Tournament Central
MAC Women’s Basketball Tournament Bracket
MAC Women’s Basketball Tournament First Round Schedule (Campus Sites)
No. 9 Miami at No. 8 Western Michigan, 5:30 pm (ESPN3)
No. 10 Bowling Green at No. 7 Buffalo, 5:30 pm (ESPN3)
No. 11 Akron at No. 6 Toledo, 5:30 pm (ESPN3)
No. 12 Eastern Michigan at No. 5 Ohio, 6:00 pm (ESPN3)
No. 9 Miami (11-20, 5-13 MAC) at No. 8 Western Michigan (17-12, 8-10 MAC), 5:30 pm (ESPN3)
Live Stats | Watch LIVE on ESPN3
Miami
The RedHawks will look to end a streak of three-straight years of a first round exit at the MAC Tournament. Miami's last win in the postseason was a first round victory over Ohio on Mar. 9, 2013, an 83-61 decision. The Red & White would lose their next game against Buffalo but would still go on to the WNIT and take on Illinois. Miami and WMU have met 62 times prior with the Red & White holding a slim 32-30 edge in the series. The Broncos have won the last five meetings. The teams met once earlier this season, on Jan. 4, an 85-60 win in favor of WMU. Miami has gotten a nice lift from sophomore guard Leah Purvis of late. The Los Angeles, Calif., native has scored 9.9 points per outing and played 30.9 minutes per game since re-entering the starting lineup on Jan. 11 against Eastern Michigan. Sophomore forward Kendall McCoy has been a standout performer for the RedHawks down the home stretch of the season. Miami has had four double-double performances this season, three of which have been by McCoy.
Western Michigan
The Broncos are 20-27 in the MAC Tournament and have advanced to the quarterfinals in each of the last four years, a feat the program did not accomplish for four straight years prior to Shane Clipfell's hire. Sophomore point guard Deja Wimby has come extremely close to a triple-double on multiple occasions this season, none more than last time out against Northern Illinois, where she went for 15 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds to go along with six steals. On the road at Akron, she had 13 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds. Western Michigan women's basketball has never had a triple-double in school history. Senior Meredith Shipman has been hot as of late, hitting multiple 3-pointers in 14 straight games and 22 games this season. She is now fourth in career 3-pointers made at WMU (171) and is chasing Shelsea Erving (2011-14) for third place with 190. She finished fifth in MAC play with 49 made 3-pointers this season.
No. 11 Akron (9-20, 2-16 MAC) at No. 6 Toledo (21-8, 12-6 MAC), 5:30 pm (ESPN3)
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Akron
Akron will be meeting Toledo for the 54th time in program history with the Rockets leading the all-time series, 40-13. Toledo registered a 61-57 triumph past Akron on Feb. 15, at James A. Rhodes Arena. Six current Zips have garnered playing time in the Mid-American Conference Tournament led by senior Hannah Plybon (Orrville, Ohio), who will be playing in her eighth tournament contest, versus Toledo. Hannah Plybon averages a team-best 8.0 points per game in tournament play, while junior Greta Burry (Lakewood, Ohio) and redshirt sophomore Megan Sefcik (Austintown, Ohio) are registering 4.5 and 3.0 tallies, respectively. Greta Burry and Hannah Plybon are pulling down 4.5 and 3.3 rebounds, respectively, in four and seven career tournament tilts. Seven of Akron's last 10 tournament foes have hailed from the MAC West Division, including five of the last seven games. The Zips have reached the tournament quarterfinal round in each of the last four seasons.
Toledo
The cross-division foes have squared off on six occasions in the post-season tourney, with Toledo holding a slight 4-2 (.667) edge. Last season, UT suffered a 73-71 overtime setback against UA in the quarterfinals of the MAC Tournament in Quicken Loans Arena (March 9, 2016). Earlier this year, the Midnight Blue & Gold claimed a 61-57 road victory at Akron on Feb. 15 to snap a six-game losing skid in the series. UT, which is 11-4 in the friendly confines of Savage Arena, is coming off an impressive 76-66 overtime triumph at Ball State on Saturday to extend its winning streak to four-consecutive contests. The Rockets outscored the Cardinals, 12-2, in the extra period to snap a six-game losing skid in the series. UT shot 2-of-4 (50.0 percent) from the floor and 8-of-12 (66.7 percent) from the charity stripe in overtime, while BSU was limited to 0-of-6 and 2-of-2 in the same categories.
No. 10 Bowling Green (8-22, 4-14 MAC) at No. 7 Buffalo (20-9, 10-8 MAC), 5:30 PM (ESPN3)
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Bowling Green
The Falcons are 8-22 overall, and BGSU ended the regular season with a record of 4-14 in MAC play. BG finished fifth in the East Division. The Falcons went 3-4 in the month of February, and BG dropped a pair of games to begin March. Sophomore Carly Santoro leads the team in scoring, with 12.1 points per game. Santoro is second on the team in rebounding, with 7.2 boards per contest, and has four 20-point games, including a BG season-high 32 points in the first KSU kerfuffle. She also leads the club with 19 double-digit scoring games and five double-doubles this year to date. Santoro has hit 43 three-pointers to rank second on the club. Fellow sophomore Sydney Lambert has 10.4 ppg to rank second on the team. The point guard leads the Falcons in assists (2.3 apg), steals (1.0 spg) and three-pointers made (69). Lambert has started all 58 of BGSU's games since her arrival on campus. Senior Ashley Tunstall has moved into third on the team in scoring, with 7.2 ppg, and she also ranks third on the Falcons with 5.6 rpg. Tunstall is third on the team with nine double-figure scoring games, including a career-high 20 points on Saturday.
Buffalo
For the second straight season, the UB women's basketball team will play host to the Bowling Green Falcons in the MAC Tournament First Round. Today marks the 37th meeting of all-time between the two programs with the Falcons owning a dominant 26-10 record against UB. Junior point guard Stephanie Reid has been facilitating at a high level since the start of the season and it is resulting in one of the best seasons by a point guard in UB history. The Australia native currently ranks 6th in the NCAA in assists/game (7.3 APG) while ranking 2nd in the MAC. The junior set a Buffalo program record for assists in a single season as she has now accumulated 213 helpers on the year. Junior center Cassie Oursler has proven to be one of the most dominant post players in the conference when she is able to stay out of foul trouble and she was able to do this on Saturday. Oursler finished off her strong effort with a career-high 21 points, nine rebounds and a block across 29 minutes of work.
No. 12 Eastern Michigan (6-24, 1-17 MAC) at No. 5 Ohio (21-8, 12-6 MAC), 6:00 PM (ESPN3)
Live Stats | Watch LIVE on ESPN3
Eastern Michigan
The Green and White has posted a 41-33 record during the month of March over the last 19 years, including an 8-2 mark during the 2014-15 season. J ust one point behind teammate Sasha Dailey, senior Phillis Webb has the opportunity to become the first Eagle to lead the squad in both scoring and rebounding. Webb has 452 points this year to go along with a team-best 252 caroms. Junior Micah Robinson posted 19 points and seven rebounds against Central Michigan, March 4. The 19 points were a career-high in conference play, bettering an 18 point outing versus NIU (12-25-17).
Ohio
The Bobcats are currently 21-8 and 12-6 in the MAC after defeating Akron 62-48 on March 4. Leading Ohio is Quiera Lampkins who is averaging 19.5 points a game. She is also second on the team in rebounds with 6.9 a game. She is first on the team with 65 steals. Jasmine Weatherspoon is averaging 8.1 points per contest while snagging a team-leading 7.5 boards a game. She is also averaging 1.63 blocks per contest. Taylor Agler is averaging 7.3 points a game and is second on the team in steals with 60. Yamonie Jenkins is averaging 3.28 assists a game and is second on the team with 8.3 points per game. Katie Barker is shooting .357 from three-point range. As a team, Ohio is averaging 69.6 points a game while opponents are averaging 62.7 points against Ohio. The Bobcats are shooting .388 from the field, .301 from three-point range and .682 from the free throw line. The Bobcats are grabbing an average of 35.6 rebounds a game. The Ohio defense is forcing opponents to turn the ball over 19.1 times a game, while Ohio averages 13.1 turnovers a game. Ohio is also averaging 9.8 steals a game. The Bobcats also average 3.5 blocks a contest. Ohio also has a turnover margin of +6.0.
