Friday's Women's Basketball Results
Ball State 55, Pitt 41
Kent State 75, Tulsa 69
Washington State 71, Miami 67
Stories Courtesy of MAC Athletic Communications Departments
Ball State 55, Pitt 41
Box Score
NAPLES, Fla. - The Ball State women's basketball team (6-1) opened play at the Florida Gulf Coast Women's Basketball Tournament with a 55-41 victory over ACC foe Pitt (4-4) Friday afternoon at the Community School of Naples.
Today's win marks the third-straight time the Ball State women's basketball team has defeated the Panthers.
Ball State head coach Brady Sallee has now defeated a Power 4 conference team 10 times during his tenure with the Cardinals — Minnesota (54-51, 2012-13), Iowa (77-72, 2015-16), Vanderbilt (88-79, 2017-18), Purdue (66-60, 2017-18), Pitt (68-66, 2022-23), Pitt (73-62, 2023-24), Georgia (52-51, 2023-24), Texas A&M (75-62), Cincinnati (83-63) and Pitt (55-41).
After Pitt opened the contest with a 4-0 run Ball State quickly answered back with seven unanswered points to take a 7-4 edge over the Panthers at the 7:45 mark. This week's Mid-American Conference Player of the Week, Bree Salenbien, along with teammates Tessa Towers and Grace Kingery helped the Cardinals with their scoring surge. The Panthers stayed close but BSU was able to end the first quarter with a four-point (19-15) lead.
The Cardinals continued to have an upper hand over the Panthers throughout the second frame. Kingery, Salenbien and Towers combined for 14 points and seven rebounds to end the first half and give Ball State the 35-22 advantage over Pitt at intermission.
After the break, the Cardinals continued to stay atop of the Panthers. On a few occasions Pitt would creep its ways back into the game so much so that the Panthers would cut Ball State's double-digit lead it had throughout the third quarter to nine (48-39) as both teams headed into the final stanza.
Towers was sent to the line twice to start the fourth quarter. Towers went 4-for-4 from the charity stripe to put BSU back up by 13 (52-39). The Panthers, despite their efforts, were unable to keep up with the Cardinals fast paced energy. It was a highly defensive fourth quarter with Ball State outshining Pitt the remainder of the ball game.
For the contest, Salenbien led the Cardinals with 17 points and 12 rebounds for her third double-double of the season. Towers tallied her fifth double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds. Kingery rounded out the double-figure scoring with 12.
Ball State dominated the boards over Pitt, 51-41 while also outscoring the Panthers in the paint, 30-16.
Kent State 75, Tulsa 69
Box Score
NASSAU, Bahamas — Kent State made all six free throws down the stretch to beat Tulsa, 75-69, on Friday and advance to the championship game of the Baha Mar Hoops Nassau Championship.
The Golden Flashes (4-4) went ahead 61-49, matching the largest lead of the contest, on a traditional three-point play by junior Janae Tyler with 9:07 to play but missed the next seven shots before junior Mya Babbitt finally got a three-point shot to fall and make it 69-63 with 1:33 remaining.
Tulsa scored on two of its next three possessions to get within 69-67 with just 21.7 seconds on the clock. Babbitt, freshman Rylee Kalocay and junior Riley Rismiller each went 2-for-2 from the charity stripe to secure the victory.
In a game in which it shot just 3-of-15 from three-point range, Kent State was able to get to the basket and outscore Tulsa 38-16 in the paint. The Flashes were also efficient at the free throw line and shot 26-of-28 for the game of 92.9%.
Babbitt nearly matched the best scoring performance in a Kent State uniform and finished with 28 points while grabbing a team-high eight rebounds to tie her career-high. Tyler added 15 points and six boards. Kalocay added 10 points and career-high four assists.
The Flashes will play in the championship game on Sunday at 1 p.m. against the winner of Friday afternoon's game between Arkansas State and Houston.
