MAC Women's Basketball Review: Cream Rising

A five-game women's MACsketball showcase tonight. WMU and Buffalo play tomorrow, if you're interested. A group of four is ascending to the top, and then there's everybody else.

BOWLING GREEN 57, NORTHERN ILLINOIS 47 — Still perfect (9-0), still playing without Curt Miller leading them. And no big deal, that grueling defense still turned in a nice sub-50 performance at home against an overmatched NIU team, who falls to 3-6 in the MAC.

The Huskies actually shot a decent 40.6% on eFG but turned it over 19 times, more than twice that of BGSU's total. Jessica Slagle scored 14 for the Falcons while freshman Logan Pastor turned in a year-best 12 points. Claire Jakubicek gave the Huskies her best with 17 points and eight rebounds.

MIAMI 79, CENTRAL MICHIGAN 57 — Credit to the rest of the Chips for playing valiantly against BGSU on Saturday, but it was mighty hard for them to keep up with the second-deepest team in the East tonight. MU outrebounded them 37-27 and shot a solid 53.9 eFG%, while CMU definitely looked like a team reeling with their three top scorers on suspension.

Courtney Osborn had a terrific do-everything game with 12 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. Maggie Boyer led the scoring with 14 points. Taylor Johnson helped CMU out with 13 points and even rebounds of her own.

MU maintains a good pace for a No. 2 seed at 7-2 while CMU plummets to 4-5, their fourth loss in five games.

TOLEDO 71, AKRON 60 — And yes, this team's still good too. Beating Akron by 11 doesn't seem too impressive given other Savage beatdowns but in all fairness it wasn't Andola Dortch's best night and 21 turnovers will always keep the other squad in the game.

But UT did get shooting contribution from others to improve to 7-2: Courtney Ingersoll hit 5-of-8 on threes for 23 points and two others hit double digits. Sina King scored 22 for UA in the loss.

EASTERN MICHIGAN 63, OHIO 53 — It's not really fair when you have to have to play against Tavelyn James in the same sport as her. It really isn't. She lit up the Bobcats thin ranks for 29 points while Olivia Fouty and Natachia Watkins both attained double-doubleness. Tenishia Benson gave OU 15 points and Shavon Robinson scored 14 but the 35-21 rebounding margin just ruined them.

EMU maintains pace with Toledo at 7-2 (and Miami for the No. 2 seed) while OU drops down to 3-6.

BALL STATE 75, KENT STATE 56 — Looks like KSU may not be the surprise team after all … yet. Ball State pecks their way to a 3-6 mark thanks to an outstanding 61.0 eFG% mark, led by Suzanne Grossnickle with 13 points on 6-of-6 shooting and Shanee Jackson's 16 points. Itziar Llobet gave KSU a game-high 17 points along with four steals but they'll still regress to 4-5.

Conference-only standings:

EAST

9-0 Bowling Green
7-2 Miami
4-5 Kent State
3-6 OHIO
3-6 Akron
1-7 Buffalo

WEST

7-2 Eastern Michigan
7-2 Toledo
4-5 Central Michigan
3-6 Northern Illinois
3-6 Ball State
2-6 Western Michigan