March 11, 2006

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CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team led from wire to wire, rolling past Kent State University by a 64-39 final Saturday afternoon (March 11) to win the Kraft Mid-American Conference Tournament title. The game was held at Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland.

Ali Mann drives past KSU's Tiffany LaFleur during Saturday's championship game. Mann was named the tournament MVP (photo by Brad Phalin)

With the win, the Falcons improve to 28-2 on the season. BGSU's total of 28 wins is the most by a MAC team in conference history. The Golden Flashes bow out of the league tournament with a record of 21-9.

BGSU's MAC Tournament title is the eighth in school history, the most of any league team. Toledo has won seven league tourney crowns.

The Falcons now await their NCAA Championships first-round destination and opponent. The national tournament field will be announced on Monday (March 13) at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Junior Carin Horne paced the Falcons with 16 points and nine rebounds in the championship game, while classmates Liz Honegger and Ali Mann scored 14 points apiece. Sophomore Kate Achter had nine points, seven rebounds and a game-high six assists, while Mann matched Achter's total of seven rebounds. Honegger had three assists, a game-high three steals and a blocked shot.

Lindsay Shearer, the MAC Player of the Year, was the lone KSU player in double digits, with 18 points. She made seven of the Flashes' 16 field goals.

Mann was named the MAC Tournament MVP, while Honegger and Achter -- the 2005 tourney MVP -- joined her on the All-Tournament Team.

The Falcons scored the game's first four points and never trailed. Mann opened the scoring with a layup off Achter's entry pass, before Achter hit a pull-up jumper. The Flashes went 3:11 without scoring before La'kia Stewart hit a jumper at the other end.

A pair of Shearer free throws moved KSU within 5-4 before Honegger and the Falcons heated up. Honegger hit a tough jumper with Kent State's Tiffany LaFleur in her face and the shot clock winding down. Then, Honegger's cross-court pass found its way to Horne in the left corner for a three-pointer. On the Falcons' next possession, Honegger made the extra pass to senior Casey McDowell for a right-side three-ball, and BG's lead was 13-4 as the Flashes burned a timeout at the 13:52 mark.

Malika Willoughby snapped BG's 8-0 run, converting a three-point play, but Mann worked her way inside, drew a foul and hit a pair of free throws. Horne split two tosses before freshman Jasmine McCall hit a step-up jumper. Moments later, a Honegger free throw gave the Falcons a 19-7 lead.

Again, Mann flexed her muscles down low, drawing Willoughby's second foul and converting both tosses for a 21-9 margin at the 9:24 mark.

Moments later, Achter drove the lane and flipped the ball to junior Amber Flynn for a layup, before Horne had a monster block on a Sarah Burgess layup attempt at the other end. That block sent the teams into a media timeout with the Falcons ahead, 23-11, with 7:46 left in the half.

Each team experienced an offensive lull over the next few minutes, as the Falcons and Flashes combined for just two points over the next three minutes. Mann snapped a BG scoreless streak of 3:07 with a driving layup at the 4:47 mark, putting the Falcons up by a 25-13 count.

Achter drove and drew Shearer's second foul of the afternoon with 1:37 left, and the Falcon soph converted a free throw to give BG a 26-13 advantage and close the first-half scoring.

In that first half, the Falcons held the Golden Flashes to just five successful field goals in 25 attempts (20.0 percent), and KSU went scoreless for the final 6:29 of the half.

The Falcons shot 36.4% in the opening half, going 8-of-22 from the floor.

BGSU got off to a hot start to begin the second stanza. The Brown and Orange got a defensive stop, and Mann drove across the lane and forced home a tough jumper.

Shearer scored inside, but Honegger answered with a layup at the opposite end of the court, then found Horne ahead of the pack for an easy fast-break layup. When Honegger came off a screen, took a Megan Thorburn pass and hit a left-elbow three-pointer, the Falcons' lead was 20 points, 35-15, at the 18:04 mark, and the Flashes took a timeout.

After KSU snapped that 7-0 BG run, Achter drove and kicked the ball to a wide-open Honegger for another three-pointer and a 38-17 lead.

The Flashes then began to make a run. Trailing by 21, and having scored only 17 points in the game's first 23-plus minutes, KSU scored the next 12 points over the next 4:21, including the last 10 in less than two minutes. A Burgess three-point play brought Kent State to within 14, and Shearer's layup cut the margin to 12 points with 12:50 on the clock.

When Willoughby hit a three-pointer less than 30 seconds later, `The Diff' was single digits for the first time since midway through the first half. The Falcons used a timeout with 12:17 left in the game.

Out of the break, Horne fought inside for a layup to stop the run. Achter hit a pair of free throws for a 42-29 lead with 11:05 left, before Shearer answered with a hoop at the 10:36 mark.

Honegger, however, drew a crowd and kicked the ball to Horne for a left-side trey and a 45-31 lead. After a KSU timeout, Horne battled on the boards, getting a pair of offensive rebounds and drawing a foul. Her free throws gave BG a 16-point lead, 47-31, with 9:19 on the clock.

With 8:37 left, Willoughby was called for a personal foul, then a technical foul. The technical was her fifth personal of the game. McDowell's free throws put the Brown and Orange ahead, 49-31.

Shearer scored to stop the run, but BG promptly began another run. A Mann free throw was followed by the junior bulling her way inside for a layup, a foul and a three-point play at the 6:21 mark. One minute later, Achter's two free throws built the lead to 22 points, and the sophomore point guard hit a layup at the 4:18 mark. That concluded a 19-4 run that gave BG a 57-22 lead.

That lead grew to 25 points, 62-37, on Honegger's third three-pointer of the day. Senior Jill Lause concluded the game's scoring with a driving layup in the final minute.

The Falcons shot 41.7% for the game, holding KSU to a 32.0% field-goal rate. BGSU held a sizeable 41-23 rebounding advantage in the game, with Flynn grabbing five boards. No KSU player had more than four rebounds on the afternoon.

Shearer was 7-for-10 from the field, but the rest of the KSU team went just 9-for-40 on the day. The Falcons hit six three-pointers in 15 attempts, while Kent was 1-for-7 from long range.

BG got to the line for 23 free-throw tries, making 18, and KSU was a perfect 6-for-6 from the stripe.

As mentioned, the Falcons' NCAA Championships opponent, date and site will be announced on Monday night (March 13). The 64-team bracket for the 2006 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship will be announced at 7:00 p.m. EST on ESPN.

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