For the Bowling Green women’s basketball team, they know they have to take things one step at a time in next week’s Mid-American Conference tournament at the Gund Arena in Cleveland.
The Falcons have a game slated for 1 p.m. Wednesday against the winner of a first round game between Miami and Western Michigan and will have to wait till tomorrow to see which one they play.
“The first thing we have to do is we can’t get ahead of ourselves,” BG head coach Curt Miller said. “The slightest overlooking or nonfocus will cause you to lose your dream.”
That dream for the Falcons is to win the conference title.
Last season, BG surprised everyone in the league by making it to the final game in the tournament before bowing out to Eastern Michigan.
The Falcons will hope to duplicate that feat and win the title game this year. In order to do that, they will have to take it one game at a time.
“You can’t make it to the semifinals if you don’t win in the quarterfinals,” Miller said.
Anyone can win … Literally.
This year has been a year of parity in the conference. There have been upsets aplenty in this year’s MAC season. Last place Northern Illinois (4-12 MAC) took down 11-5 Eastern Michigan earlier this year and East champion Kent State dropped a game to last place Central Michigan.
With upsets like this, there is no reason to think this year’s tournament will be any different.
“I will still say boldly that there are eight or nine teams that can win the conference tournament,” Miller said. “The team that plays injury-free and that can catch some breaks will win.”
With a number one seed in the tournament and a MAC regular season championship under their belt, the Falcons know they will be in every team’s cross hairs.
“With that said comes the target on us,” Miller said. “I think we saw some of that this season when we were at the top of the standings.”
Mann up.
BG forward Ali Mann has played great all year. The sophomore won last year’s MAC freshman of the year and has followed it up with a great sophomore campaign, averaging 14.0 points and 7.5 boards per game.
An ankle sprain in the Toledo game looked to put her season in jeopardy but she shrugged it off in a MAC clinching win over Northern on Tuesday. Mann scored 20 points in 24 minutes coming off the bench for the Falcons, playing her biggest game of the season.
“It started out as being an emotional lift to the team to see their leader on the floor,” Miller said. “But once she got in the game she started to loosen up and said she felt fine.” Mann hasn’t practiced since the game but will test the ankle before the Falcons open the tournament.
Tournament time.
The Falcons opening game of the MAC tournament will be Wednesday at 1 p.m. BG will play the winner of tomorrow’s Western Michigan-Miami game. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. in Oxford.
