Eagles Advance to MAC Semifinals

Box score.

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Eastern Michigan University women’s basketball team was able to avenge an earlier loss to Ohio University, by beating the Bobcats, 79-69, in the quarterfinals of the 2007 Kraft MAC Women’s Basketball Tournament here at Quicken Loansa Arena. The Eagles were led All-MAC honorees Sarah VanMetre and Alyssa Pittman with 22 points each. VanMetre garnered second team honors over the weekend while Pittman picked up the league’s Freshman of the Year trophy.

With the victory, Eastern (16-12) now moves on to face the tournament’s top seed and nationally ranked Bowling Green State University Friday, March 9, at 2:30 p.m. The Falcons knocked off the University of Toledo, 71-62, earlier in the afternoon to advance to the semifinals for the four consecutive season. On the other side of the court, Ohio drops out of the tournament and ends its season with an 18-12 mark.

Besides the scoring duo of VanMetre and Pittman, EMU was keyed by third team All-MAC member Patrice McKinney who turned in her ninth double-double of the campaign with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Freshmen Emily Hanley and Kelly Watts both also chipped in seven points.

Lauren Kohn paced the Ohio attack with a game-high 25 points, while Rachel Frederick and Domenica Silva notched 12 points.

“For this game we had three big numbers coming in: rebounds, free throw attempts and the foul count,” said acting head coach Shane Clipfell. “The first time we played Ohio at our place they beat us. But you look at these numbers, the 20 for 30 on free throw attempts, the rebounding is 39-28 and the fouls were 22 to 13. They had the same numbers on us the first time when we played at our place earlier in the season when they beat us.”

“I thought the speed of the game was a little to fast for us. I felt like we were a step behind all night. I thought Eastern played very well tonight,” mentioned Ohio University head coach Sylvia Crawley. “I thought they attacked the basket well and got themselves to the free throw line. This wasn’t the way we wanted to end our season but I told the players in the locker room to keep their heads up high. We had a great season and it was definitely something we can hang out hats on, but I want us to remember the feeling we are feeling right now so we can have some motivation for next year.”

Ohio jumped on the board early to take a 9-8 edge with the EMU points mostly coming from the sharp shooting from Pittman with a pair of three pointers. The game remained tight with the Eagles taking a slim 17-15 edge with 11:08 to play via hot shooting (6-of-10) and controlling the glass (10 to 3).

A 9-4 run by the Eastern pushed the margin to seven, 26-19, with 7:03 left before the half that featured all nine points coming from VanMetre and McKinney. However, the Bobcats roared back as the scoring went silent for EMU, as the Green and White managed just a pair of free throws over the next five minutes as EMU took a 28-23 lead with 4:34 left. The advantage would hover around six points as EMU headed to the locker room up 36-30.

For the stanza the Eagles were led by Pittman and McKinney with 11 points each, the Bobcats were also paced by Kohn with 11. For the stanza, EMU shot 50.0 percent (13-of-26) but struggled from the charity stripe managing just a 50.0 percent clip (6-of-12). Ohio made 40.7 percent (11-of-27) of its shots from the field, but struggled crash the boards, collecting just 12 caroms to 20 for EMU.

Following the intermission, Kohn took Ohio on her back scoring the Bobcats first eight points of the period. A pair of threes by Pittman and VanMetre kept the EMU pace equaled, as the Eagles held a 44-40 advantaged with 16:15 to go. Fouls were starting to mount for Ohio, as the Eagles would go to the free-throw line six times over the next four minutes to push the cushion to seven, 51-44, however OU quickly cut it to two, 54-52, on tosses by Jennifer Bushy at the 10:05 mark.

EMU responded with a 14-3 run over the next 4:37 to expand it back to a 13-point cushion, 68-53. The run features five consecutive points by VanMetre along with numerous defensive stops by McKinney, the MAC’s Defensive Player of the Year.

A Kohn jumper ended the run but McKinney would tack on back-to-back buckets to make it 70-59. OU would not go away, getting within six, 73-67, on a Rachel Frederick runner in the lane followed by a long-range triple with 34 seconds left. That would be all the closer the Bobcats would get though, as Annie Malatinsky, Pittman and VanMetre would make six consecutive free-throws to seal the decision.

Eastern Michigan Athletics

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