MAC Basketball Notes: Belted By The Belt

Western Kentucky 60, Bowling Green 53 — Poor Hilltoppers. They finally get bowl eligible in their FBS era and aren't invited to play in a bowl. They took their anger out in basketball form in the Battle of Bowling Greens. Somehow they did this while only making four field goals in the second half. FOUR! Were it not for the free throws (21-for-31) WKU would've been meat as the Falcons did a swell job of erasing a 12-point halftime disadvantage to tie the game in the final two minutes. Scott Thomas had an admirable 16 points and eight rebounds. So for another calendar year, Kentucky gets to be the better BG. Grumble.

Middle Tennessee 77, Akron 53 — In all fairness, MTSU is looking strong this year. This is the team that went to UCLA and smoked 'em by 20 points, so I suppose losing by 24 to them doesn't look terrible, but the Zips ought to be doing better than that. The 77 makes sense since MTSU leads the country in field goal percentage, shooting over 50 percent — which they did again. But just 53 points for UA? Ouch. Zeke Marshall fouled out of this game without registering a block and finished with a mere three points/four rebounds. Nikola Cvetinovic as also addled in this game, getting only nine points on 15 shots, although he did grab 10 rebounds. Alex Abreu actually led the team with 14 points.

Women's games:

Ball State 78, Stetson 73 (2OT) — The game of the day, naturally — and not just because it was a close one. The stat line of perhaps the day comes from SU junior guard Victoria McGowan, a BGSU transfer: 26 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists, eight steals, and nine turnovers. She was two more steals from a quadruple-double. One of her 3-points shots also forced the second overtime. But BSU ice the game late with free throws and was bookended by 20-point games from Brittany Carter and Jazmin Hitchens. Carter also had six steals and six assists.

Toledo 58, Colorado State 51 — CSU isn't a great team but the Rockets were able to eke out another victory at home in the post-Shafir era. Andola Dortch finished with 16 points, eight assists and five rebounds. Courtney Ingersoll, Yolanda Richardson and Haylie Linn also ended in double figures.

No men's games today. Women's games:

7:00 p.m. — OHIO at Cleveland State

Tuesday's men's games:

7:00 p.m. — Kent State at James Madison
8:30 p.m. — Ball State at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville

Tuesday's women's games:

11:00 a.m. — Miami at Duquesne
5:15 p.m. — BGSU at Youngstown State
7:00 p.m. — Kent State at Temple
8:00 p.m. — WMU at Chicago State