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March 21, 2024

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Spring Housing Guide

Punching their ticket

The BGSU women’s basketball team will play Michigan State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

The game will be played Saturday at 12:11 p.m. in Louisville, Ky., and will be televised on ESPN2.

BGSU (27-6) will be a No. 12 seed in the Kansas City regional bracket, which is the third-strongest region.

The Falcons will play either fourth-seeded Kentucky or 13th-seeded Liberty in the second round if they beat the fifth-seeded Spartans (22-9).

The Spartans — who are ranked No. 25 in the AP Poll — are somewhat of a familiar team for coach Curt Miller and the Falcons, as the two teams met during the 2008 Women’s National Invitation Tournament in East Lansing, Mich. BGSU lost that game 74-66.

“It was a great game two years ago,” Miller said. “A lot of the same players were underclassmen for Michigan State, so we’re familiar with them.”

The Spartans have heavily relied on their defense to win games this season, allowing 59.4 points per game and having not allowed more than 70 points since Dec. 31. They have scored 67.4 points per game, and beat three teams that were ranked in the top 10 at some point this season.

BGSU also plays stingy defense, allowing 60.1 points per game and fewer than that the past five games. But, they rely more on their offense than the Spartans, as the Falcons average 73.7 points per game and use an up-tempo pace to compete with bigger teams.

The mismatches that Michigan State’s players will cause for the Falcons will be great. BGSU has played against some bigger players this season during Mid-American Conference play, but that experience will only go so far against the Spartans.

“This is another level,” Miller said. “They literally have guards on their program that are bigger, stronger and faster than our post game.”

Michigan State’s post game is none too shabby either.

Six-foot-nine center Allyssa DeHaan is one of the biggest players in the NCAA and is much larger than Falcon center Tara Breske, who is six feet tall. Breske hasn’t forgotten the matchup between them from the WNIT game.

“[I remember] very well. Yes I do,” Breske said.

Falcon players are not letting those matchup problems deter them though. Senior Sarah Clapper said BGSU should have no problem staying in the game.

“I think we’re going to match up OK, and I think it’s going to be a good game,” she said.

The Falcons earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007 by beating Toledo 62-53 in the championship game of the MAC Tournament this past Saturday at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

In the 2007 tournament, the seventh-seeded Falcons advanced to the Sweet 16 by beating 10th-seeded Oklahoma State in the first round and upsetting second-seeded Vanderbilt in the second round.

BGSU lost to third-seeded Arizona State 67-49 in the Sweet 16, ending the deepest run any MAC team has ever made in the tournament.

Breske is the only starter on the team who has played in that NCAA Tournament, earning one minute in the loss to Arizona State.

Because her playing time was so limited, Breske does not plan to draw from her playing time, instead she will draw from the exposure she gained watching her teammates from the bench.

“The experience, the leadership from the upperclassmen,” Breske said. “They showed us how hard we have to work. Even though I didn’t play much in the tournament, you take away so much of the atmosphere.”

Fellow senior Laura Bugher played two minutes during that game.

Michigan State earned an at-large bid to the tournament after being ousted in the Big Ten Tournament by Iowa in the semifinals.

The Falcons are 2-3 in NCAA Tournament games coached by Miller and 3-9 all-time.

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