Nobody talked about Western Michigan, but in the end it seemed so obvious. The No. 4 seed was not seeing the attention that the MAC's other elite teams were seeing, but the Broncos were a team that was growing up before everyone's eyes. A talented core of young players played their best basketball of the season at the right time as WMU won the MAC Championship. It could be a dynasty; the Broncos will lose just one senior.
CLEVELAND, OH - With 1:10 left in the season, Western Michigan senior Curleta Harris drove down the right side of the lane and came to a jump stop when Ball State's Jessica Reiter came over to double team her.
"I saw the lane and I penetrated and my shot had been going so I figured, 'Hey, go in there and penetrate and just pull up,'" explained Harris, who finished with 17 points and two assists. "When they all converged on me I knew I had to dish somewhere and I looked and Lori (Crisman) was right there and I just gave it to her."
Crisman scored her second basket of the game to put Western Michigan (20-11) up 78-76. The Cardinals (20-8) had one final chance down three with nine seconds left, but Johna Goff's shot glanced off the rim and Crisman grabbed the rebound as she was fouled. Crisman drilled two free throws with six seconds left to seal the 81-76 victory for WMU and their first Mid-American Conference championship since 1985.
"In the timeout coach said four out, one in," said Goff, who finished with 17 points and seven rebounds. "It got down to seven or eight seconds and I got a look so I took it. Sometimes they go in and sometimes they don't. Unfortunately for us, it didn't go in today."
"Off Johna's (Goff) shot they got that big rebound," said BSU head coach Tracy Roller on the knockout punch of the game. "I think you could say that it was the last time it was out of our hands."
Western Michigan went on to lose to Stanford in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
