Michigan Tech Downs Northwood in GLIAC Women’s Basketball Tournament Quarters, Will Host GLIAC Final Four

BAY CITY, Mich. - Top-seeded Michigan Technological University will host the 2010 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Women's Basketball Final Four after the Huskies defeated Northwood University, 78-52 in tournament quarterfinal action on Tuesday (Click here for recap).

Click here for the GLIAC Women's Basketball Tournament Page

In other GLIAC Tournament action, No. 2 seed Northern Michigan University downed Ashland University, 71-50 (Click here for recap).  No. 6 seed Lake Superior State University upset the No. 3 seed Grand Valley State University, in Allendale (Mich.), 61-51 (Click here for recap).  And fourth-seeded University of Findlay turned back No. 5 seed Hillsdale College, 66-62 (Click here for recap).

Michigan Tech will host Lake Superior State in the first GLIAC Tournament Semifinal game on Friday, Mar. 5 at 6:00 p.m. in the SDC Gymnasium in Houghton, Mich.  Northern Michigan will face Findlay in the second Semifinal game at 8:00 p.m. in the SDC.  The winners of those two games will square off on Saturday, Mar. 6 at 7:00 p.m. in Houghton (Mich.).

Release courtesy of Wes Frahm, MTU Director of Athletic Communications & Marketing

HOUGHTON, Mich. — The No. 5-ranked Michigan Tech women’s basketball team opened the game on a 20-4 run and cruised to a 78-52 GLIAC Tournament Quarterfinal victory tonight at the SDC Gym. The Huskies advanced their record to 26-2 and will now host the GLIAC Final Four this weekend.

Senior Danae Danen set the tone for the game when she drilled a 3-pointer just 13 seconds after the opening tip. Michigan Tech went on to make 12 3-pointers in the game—two shy of the GLIAC Tournament record.

Just 6:30 into the game, Tech was 5-of-5 from 3-point range with all five starters having hit one. The hosts led 23-7 at that point. The gap grew to 31-9 on the Huskies’ seventh triple at the 9:40 mark and was eventually 47-23 at the break.

The second half saw Danen make a 3-pointer just 90 seconds into the frame. The Timberwolves never got closer than 22 the rest of the way.

“We talked about having a good start, and we came out and played hard,” said head coach John Barnes. “I thought our start catapulted us through the game.”

Katie Wysocky led all scorers with a game-high 22 points. Sarah Stream recorded 17 points. Danen (12 points) and Katie Zimmerman (11) were also in double figures.

Tara Ferris and Lindsey Lindstrom combined to hold Northwood’s leading scorer Pam Wilson to just four points.

Quality of shots and shooting percentage were the difference. Tech made 54 percent for the game while Northwood was limited to 36 percent. The Huskies finished at 12-of-27 (44 percent) from behind the arc. NU was 3-of-14 (21 percent).

For the third straight season, Michigan Tech will host the GLIAC Final Four. The Huskies will play Lake Superior State in the GLIAC Tournament Semifinal Friday (Mar. 5) at 6 p.m. Northern Michigan and Findlay will square off in the other semifinal at 8 p.m. The winners will meet for the GLIAC Championship Saturday (Mar. 6) at 7 p.m.

Release courtesy of David Faiella, NMU Sports Information Director

MARQUETTE, Mich. – The Northern Michigan University women’s basketball team has advanced to the Final Four of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Women’s Basketball Tournament with a 71-50 victory over the Ashland Eagles Tuesday night in one of the quarterfinal games.

In other quarterfinal action Michigan Tech (1) defeated Northwood (8) 78-52, Findlay (4) defeated Hillsdale (5) 66-62 and Lake Superior State (6) defeated Grand Valley State (3) 61-51. The semifinals (Friday, March 5) will match-up Michigan Tech facing Lake Superior State in the first game at 6 p.m. , and Northern Michigan tipping off against Findlay in the second game at 8 p.m. The championship game is set for Saturday, March 6 at 7 p.m. All games will be held at the SDC Gymnasium, Michigan Tech.

With the win the Wildcats won its 20th game of the season and are now 20-8 overall. Ashland concludes the 2009-10 season with a 14-14 record.

The ‘Cats jumped out to a 15-4 lead five minutes gone in the game after a Steffani Stoeger three-pointer. A little under the half way point in the half, Mariah Dunham’s lay-up made the score 28-11. About three minutes later Dunham’s jumper gave the ‘Cats a 32-15 lead. The final five minutes of the half the ‘Cats used a 6-1 run to take a 40-21 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Elicia Derusha’s three-point play minutes into the second half had the ‘Cats up by a score of 46-28. Dunham’s lay-up six minutes into the half had the ‘Cat leading by 21 points (53-32). NMU kept its lead around the 20-point mark. Holly Cole sank a three-pointer at 7:43 for a 60-39 NMU lead. A little over a minute later, Derusha’s lay-up gave the ‘Cats a 64-41 lead. The NMU defense did not allow Ashland a score the final 3:28 of the game. NMU ended the game with a free throw from Dunham and a lay-up by Erin Powers.

Dunham off the bench again led all scorers with 22 points and nine rebounds. Stoeger ended the game with 13 points while Christa Erickson added 10. Daiva Garbec led the Eagles with 21 points.
For the game NMU shot 29-61 from the floor (47.5 percent). From the three-point line the ‘Cats were 7-21 (35.3 percent) with Stoeger making three of the triples. The ‘Cats attempted nine free throws and made six (66.7 percent). NMU outrebounded Ashland by a 45-29 count.

Release courtesy of Linda Bouvet, LSSU Sports Information Director

ALLENDALE, Mich. - Lake Superior State executed its game plan to near perfection to beat Grand Valley State 61-51 during Tuesday's Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Tournament quarterfinal game.

LSSU (15-12), the No. 6 seed in the 2010 tournament, went into the game with a 1-1 regular-season record against No. 3 seed GVSU (18-10), but hadn't forgotten its 24-point loss in Allendale in January. During Tuesday's return visit to Grand Valley State, Lake Superior State kept relentless pressure on the young GVSU offense and held the Lakers to 32.7 percent from the field -- their second-lowest shooting percentage of the season. LSSU also made the most of GVSU's 16 turnovers.

Lake Superior State closed out the first half with a 6-1 run to lead 27-22. The Lakers set the tone during the first 90 seconds of the second half when Cassy Schemberger hit a jumper and Nicole Marshall canned a three-pointer following back-to-back GVSU turnovers. A minute later, a Schemberger steal led to an Emily Joseph lay-up for a 36-24 LSSU lead with 17:26 remaining.

Grand Valley State cut it to eight, but never really threatened in the second half. LSSU's biggest lead was 16 points, 58-42, with 3:31 to go.

Joseph scored 15 points, while Maria Blazejewski totaled 14 points and six rebounds to lead Lake Superior State. Marshall finished with 13 points and nine rebounds. Ronlea Peterson totaled six assists. Joseph, Peterson and Marshall had three steals each.

LSSU shot 42.9 percent from the field, including 4-of-15 from behind the arc. The Lakers made 15-of-20 free throws.

Kelly Kretz led GVSU with nine points, while Elizabeth Van Tiflin totaled eight points and eight rebounds. GVSU was 7-of-13 from three-point range and 8-of-14 at the free-throw line. Grand Valley out-rebounded LSSU, 38-33.

Lake Superior State advances to the GLIAC semifinals, which will be held Friday at top-seeded Michigan Tech. In other quarterfinal games Tuesday, it was #4 Findlay 66, #5 Hillsdale 62; #1 Michigan Tech 78, #8 Northwood 58; and #2 Northern Michigan 71, #7 Ashland 50.

Release courtesy of David Buck, UF Sports Information Director

The University of Findlay women’s basketball team advanced to the semi finals of the 2010 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Tournament with a 66-62 win over Hillsdale College on Tuesday, March 2 in Croy Gymnasium. The victory gives the Oilers a 21-7 record on the year.

The Oilers, who trailed by eight points early in the second half, fought back to tie the score at 49-49 with just over ten minutes to play on a jumper by sophomore guard Laura Bardall. The two team s would battle back and forth the remainder of the game and were again tied with 1:44 remaining in the game.

Sitting at 60-60 with under two minutes to play, Bardall scored on a lay-up and senior guard Audra Mihalic split a pair of free throws to give Findlay a 63-60 lead with only 21 seconds left.

A pair of free throws by the Chargers Brooke Knight cut the Oilers lead to one and Mihalic once again split two attempts from the charity stripe to make the score 64-62 with 12 seconds remaining.

A turnover by the Chargers then sealed the win as Mihalic canned a couple of free throws to extend Findlay’s season.

Mihalic led the way with 28 points on 7-of-19 shooting while Bardall chipped in 14 points, eight rebounds, four assists, three blocks and a pair of steals.

Junior forward Megan Sellers had an outstanding game as well, scoring ten points to go along with a career-high 15 rebounds.

The Chargers were led by Chelsea Harrison’s 18 points.

Laura Barczak added 17 points and 11 rebounds for Hillsdale while Janay Miller clicked for 15 in the game.

The Oilers will be back in action again on Friday against Northern Michigan University in the semi finals of the GLIAC Tournament at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan.