CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Western Michigan women's basketball team fell at the hands of Ohio, 84-75, on Wednesday, March 11, in the quarterfinals of the Mid-American Conference Championship. The Broncos were the No. 5 seed and posted a first round win on their home court over Bowling Green to move on to Cleveland.
The Broncos fell to 18-13 overall and 25-32 all-time in the MAC Championship, with titles in 1985 and 2003. Under head coach
Shane Clipfell, the Broncos are 11-8 in the MAC Championship.
Ohio, the No. 4 seed and MAC East regular season champion advances to face No. 9 Toledo in the semifinals, who upset top-seeded Central Michigan earlier in the day.
Four of the five Bronco starters scored in double-digits in the contest. Junior
Leighah-Amori Wool led the Broncos with 20 points and six rebounds, off 7-of-12 shooting from the field and 6-of-6 from at the free throw line.
Breanna Mobley tallied 11 points and brought down a season-high 17 rebounds, one short of a career high.
Jordan Walker had 15 points with four rebounds, while
Chelayne Bailey scored 11 with a team-high seven assists. Four players for WMU hit at least two three-point shots in the contest.
The Broncos fought hard to keep up with the Bobcats, shooting 28-of-65 (43.1 percent) to Ohio's 43.3 percent. WMU converted 9-of-28 shots (32.1 percent) from long range, with a team-high four shots made in the first quarter. They held the advantage from the charity stripe, shooting 83.3 percent.
The Bobcat defense scored nine points off of 10 Bronco turnovers in the game. WMU narrowly out-rebounded Ohio 40-36 and held the advantage with 34 points in the paint, while Ohio outscored the Broncos 17-15 in second chance points and 12-0 on the fast break.
Ohio scored the first six points of Wednesday's contest, but the Broncos fought back with back-to-back threes from
Kamrin Reed and a jumper in the paint by Mobley. The game tied up at 10 after a layup from Mobley, and made free throws to put WMU in the lead, 11-10. Despite Ohio going up 18-12 after the first timeout, the Broncos went off on a 8-0 run, backed by the Bobcats missing six straight baskets, to take a 22-19 advantage into the second quarter.
The Bobcats dominated in the second quarter, holding the Broncos to just 15 points over 10 minutes. WMU caught back up with consecutive threes from
Maddie Watters, but Ohio was able to hold back the threat in the final minutes to take a 43-37 lead back to the locker rooms.
Wool opened up the third frame with big shooting for the Broncos, putting up eight straight points to narrow the Ohio lead to three points. The Bobcats began to pull away off 3-for-5 shooting from long range, narrowly outscoring Western Michigan 25-24. Walker capped off the quarter with a three-pointer in the final seconds.
In the fourth quarter, the Bobcats shot 3-for-6 (50 percent) from three-point range. Wool and Walker put up baskets to get the Brown & Gold back within three points before Ohio took off on a 6-0 run, capped by a jumper from Erica Johnson, who finished the game with 28 points. Wool, Bailey and Walker made up the bulk of scoring for the Broncos in the fourth quarter, each contributing four points.
The Broncos hold their annual team banquet on Sunday, March 15.
