Falcon women win MAC tournament; ready for NCAA

CLEVELAND – If Bowling Green is going to make a momentum-changing basket, it’s probably going to be a
3-point shot.
That wasn’t the case Saturday afternoon in the Mid-American Conference tournament championship game in
Quicken Loans Arena.
A simple layup from senior standout Lauren Prochaska turned things in Bowling Green’s favor as the
Falcons downed Eastern Michigan, 51-46, to earn their second straight tournament title and NCAA bid. The
NCAA pairings will be announced Monday evening.
And while the basket was a simple layup, it was far from a simple play.
With the score tied at 35, the Falcons kind of stagnant on offense and the BG crowd mostly silent, EMU’s
Cassie Schrock missed a shot. BG’s Chrissy Steffen grabbed the rebound and made the outlet pass to Tracy
Pontius to start the fast-break.
With Pontius going down the right side and Prochaska on the left, James was back on defense and stayed
with Pontius. Pontius then made a behind-the-back bounce pass to Prochaska, who converted the layup with
8:46 remaining in the game.
“I saw Lauren filling. I just left it for her and she had a good finish and I think that gave us the
momentum,” Pontius said.
When asked when she made the decision to go behind-the-back, Pontius said: ‘maybe the last second.”
“Tracy does it all the time (in practice). I don’t try things like that,” Prochaska said with a laugh.

“I think we were waiting for a big play; we were waiting for it to come and that was it for us,”
Prochaska continued. “It sparked us and it sparked the crowd. I think their (the crowd’s) energy really
helped us.”
BG head coach Curt Miller knew the behind-the-back pass was coming.
“She does that a lot,” Miller said. “You could see her setting up for that. The way the night was going,
I expected that to go right out of bounds.
“Without question that was a momentum changer,” he continued. “Not necessarily a big change in the
scoreboard situation. But we talked about the team taking a deep breath, how about the crowd? (It) took
a deep breath and erupted. Finally having that fan base behind us, yelling and cheering for us, that
gave us a huge spark.”
The Falcons then got a defensive stop on a blocked shot by Maggie Hennegan and Steffen hit a 3-pointer
putting Bowling Green up by five.
“It was something that we desperately needed, some early offense,” Miller said about the two transition
baskets. “When we got into the halfcourt, we couldn’t break them down. We weren’t making tough,
contested shots. So early offense in transition was huge at the moment.”
The Falcons then hit seven straight free throws, five by Prochaska, to take a 47-38 lead into the final
four minutes of the game.
EMU’s Cassie Schrock and De’Ja Wills each made a 3-pointer around a Pontius driving layup and Bowling
Green was up, 49-44 with 1:41 left as the Eagles refused to quit.
After an empty possession by the Falcons, the Eagles’ Paige Redditt made a pair of free throws with 45.8
seconds left, cutting BG’s lead to 49-46.

The Falcons turned it over on the next possession on a held-ball.
Wills then missed a long 3-point attempt and Hennegan got the rebound.
Prochaska split a pair of free throws with 9.6 seconds and 2.4 seconds left to account for the final
margin. At one point Prochaska made 11 straight free throws and she finished 13-of-15 from the line with
a game-high 20 points.
“When we got to six team fouls and had a little bit of a lead late in the game, I thought if we could
just stay aggressive … We have a lot of good free-throw shooters,” Miller said. “I felt confident that
if we could just keep attacking we could win that game at the foul line at the end. We have so much
belief in our team at the foul line.”
Miller was pleased that his veteran team, which includes six seniors, was able to prevail in the end.
“Even though they made that late push at us we didn’t lose confidence. We had to believe that we were
going to make good plays and good decisions with a veteran team,” Miller said. “My emotions at the end
(were) I can’t be more proud for the seniors, the whole program and the community that supports us.”
Pontius added 13 points and Hennegan pulled down 11 rebounds. James led EMU with 19 points, but she was
the only Eagle in double figures.
Prochaska was named the tournament MVP and was on the all-tournament team with Pontius, EMU’s Schrock and
James and Toledo’s Melissa Goodall.