Miami of Ohio women earn first MAC title, NCAA bid
CLEVELAND — With more than two minutes left, it was obvious to just about everyone in Quicken Loans Arena that Miami was going to win the Mid-American Conference women’s basketball tournament.
When the RedHawks got a foul shot with 2:10 left in their title game with Ohio University Saturday afternoon, it expanded their lead to 13 points, their biggest of the day.
It held up, of course. Miami (23-10) went on to whip the Bobcats 67-56 to win the tournament title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament next week. Both the tournament championship and NCAA bid are firsts for the program.
“My staff and my team worked so hard,” said Miami coach Maria Fantanarosa. “They really do deserve the championship because they’re the ones who have to hear from everybody that Miami hasn’t been in an NCAA tournament. They’re the ones who have to hear, ‘Well, you came in second this year in the conference.’”
And while the inevitable title and NCAA bid were obvious to almost everyone in the arena, the operative work is “almost.” The certainty of defeat wasn’t obvious to OU freshman Allie LaForce, a Bobcats walkon who last season was starring at Vermilion.
“There was never really a point in the game when I thought that,” said LaForce. “I didn’t think we would lose until there were about 20 or 30 seconds left in the game. You always have to keep hoping because anything can happen. We’re always fighting for the win and we never want to put our heads down.”
The Bobcats (20-13) didn’t. They cut the score to 59-52 with just under two minutes to play when guard Jennifer Poff stole the ball and senior leader Quintana Ward followed with a long 3-point basket. But Miami’s Amanda Jackson, the tournament MVP, hit the first two of eight RedHawks foul shots the rest of the way, which gave them the winning margin.
A 5-foot-8 freshman guard, LaForce has played only sparingly — 17 total minutes — this season and didn’t get into the MAC title game. So little playing time must be tough for a high-school starter who at Vermilion averaged 13 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game for her career. And who made nearly 45 percent of her field-goal attempts as a senior.
“It’s not for me, because I went into this year prepared for that,” LaForce said. “I know in practice every single day that we’re all working hard and we’re making each other better and that helps us in the game. So I know I contribute to the game in a lot of ways.”
And significant playing time or not, LaForce is one of a small handful of Lorain County-area women to make the jump from Division II high school basketball one season to Division I NCAA competition the next.
“The (OU) coaches were in contact with my AAU coaches and heard about me that way,” LaForce said. “They invited me — no, they welcomed me — to an open tryout right after I got there (in August). It was an hour at 6 o’clock in the morning.
“After they said I had advanced past the first round of tryouts, I had to run a timed mile. I think I got third, and they announced right after that I would be a member of the team. It was really cool. The girls cheered and were really enthusiastic. They were very welcoming. I was thankful for that.”
Unlike second-seeded Miami and top-seeded Bowling Green, the third-seeded Bobcats did not receive a first-round bye.
“We played all four games and we just beat Bowling Green (Friday),” LaForce said. “For us, that was a huge, huge win. That was the only team we hadn’t beaten in the conference.”
The Bobcats advanced to the championship game when they went two overtimes on Friday to knock out the defending-champion Falcons.
Miami 67, Ohio 56
OHIO (56): Lauren Hmiel 4-4-12, Chardra Myers 0-2-2, Lauren Kohn 4-2-10, Jennifer Poff 3-2-10, Quintana Ward 3-0-6, Jackie Hiebert 0-0-0, Simone Redd 1-2-4, Jennifer Bushby 2-0-6, Kamille Buckner 3-0-6. Totals: 20-10-56.
MIAMI (67): Laura Markwood 2-2-6, Stephanie Ford 4-5-13, Amanda Jackson 7-5-19, Jenna Schone 6-3-19, Briana Dunlap 0-0-0, Ashley Hawkins 2-2-6, Chanell Ridley 1-0-2, Courtney Reed 1-0-2. Totals: 23-17-67.
Ohio 27 29 — 56
Miami 30 37 — 67
3-point goals: Ohio 6-20 (Kohn 2, Poff 2, Bushby 2); Miami 4-13 (Schone 4). Field goals: Ohio 20-55 (36.4 percent); Miami 23-60 (38.3 percent). Free throws: Ohio 10-12; Miami 17-28. Rebounds: Ohio 36 (Kohn 8); Miami 44 (Markwood 11, Ford 11). Turnovers: Ohio 16; Miami 13. Fouled out: Buckner.
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Filed by March 16th, 2008 in Sports.
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