Tulsa: Day 1 recap

For the 4th straight year, Lesley Crane and her Westerwinds tip off the Mid-Con tournaments, playing an 8 seed - this time the Lady Thunderbirds of Southern Utah. There was a decent WIU fan turnout in addition to their pep band and cheerleaders and mascot.

The Westerwinds stumbled into a 6-2 lead at the first media break, and extended it to 8-2, but SUU managed to close the gap to 8-5 at the second media break. The Winds were having major trouble getting Zane Teilane into the thick of the action. SUU's defense made life difficult, playing a sort of ameoba zone with special emphasis on Teilane. At the same time she had a huge impact on defense, blocking some shots, altering others. The two teams traded a single basket until the next media timeout.

At one point, 2 straight calls went against WIU, and their pep band did their 3 blind mice routine.

A flurry of scoring brought the T-Birds 1 point closer to a tie at 13-12 by the final media timeout of the half. After the timeout, they scored a conventional 3-pt. play while WIU hit a free throw, and in a flurry at the end of the half, they had a last shot opportunity to widen the lead but squandered it on a missed layup. The score at the half was 16-14 SUU.

Just one of the surprising things about the first half was thatt neither team hit a single 3-point basket. That quickly changed as the 2nd half began with Western finally hitting a 3 to take the lead, only to be immediately answered by SUU's first 3 of the game, putting SUU back up by 2. That was followed by another first: Zane Teilane finally started getting up under the basket. She went past her defender for an easy layup, then hit a 5-footer in the lane for another basket. In between, yet another layup attempt was stuffed by SUU's center. SUU kept up and still led 25-23 at the first media timeout of the 2nd half, but Western started picking up their offense a bit and managed to pull ahead, 31-30 at the 2nd timeout.

At this point, Western started to pull away, but SUU hit another 3 and to remain close at the 3rd media timeout (35-33). But Western continued turning up the heat, making good defensive stops and breaking down SUU's defense to lead 42-35 at the final media timeout. SUU had finally run out of gas, and Western won, 50-37.

For the 3rd time in 4 years, Western Illinois had great trouble putting away the 8 seed. Now they face a semifinal game that they have never won, and if Valpo manages to beat UMKC, that will play on their minds, because Valpo is one of the teams that has upset them in the tourney (ORU is the other, doing it twice). On the other hand, if UMKC wins, Western can think about how UMKC beat them on their own floor on Senior night.

For the first time ever, IUPUI played as the 2 seed, facing off against Chicago State. The early going was marked by sloppy play on both sides, CSU's fullcourt press, and Brooke McAfee struggling to get on track. At the first media timeout, CSU led 6-2. The Jags started to figure it out a bit and pulled to within 2 at 9-7 at the 2nd media timeout.

As usual the CSU men's team was the pep squad for the Lady Cougars.

Offense picked up a bit on both sides and CSU remained ahead, 16-15 at the 3rd media timeout, but IUPUI pulled ahead 19-16 at the final media timeout of the half. They had started to assert themselves on both offense and defense and went into halftime leading 25-16.

The 2nd half was a nightmare for Chicago State. Missed layup after missed layup, although IUPUI could not run away with it. Their led actually shrunk to 8 at the first media timeout, 28-20. Although CSU finally connected on a layup, they missed the FT that would have made it a 3-pt. play, annd IUPUI's lead returned to 9 at the 2nd media timeout, 33-24. CSU kept scrapping on defense (forcing turnovers) and missing layups on offense, but they hung in there to pull with 7 at the 3rd media timeout, 37-30. They did this by going back to their fullcourt press. Then they forced 2 Jag turnovers and missed cutting the lead to 1, missing yet another layup Immediatelly following this miss, their defense ran the shot clock almost down to 0 before IUPUI hit a 3 just in the nick of time, which pretty much ended the threat. IUPUI led 41-34 at the 4th media timeout, and won 51-40.

The Lady Jaguars won the second Mid-Con tourney victory in the history of their program (the first came on March 3, 2001, beating Southern Utah 58-53) and will face the winner of the ORU-Oakland game. Either opponent will test their mettle severely.

Mid-Con summary and Post-game quotes

The second session (men's quarterfinals) began at 6pm, and the ORU fan turnout was quite a bit less than stellar. Probably a third of the seats in the 6000-seat UMAC were empty. They still had a huge advantage, but not as much as they could have.

The whole game was marked by a curious inability to box out - by both teams. Western Illinois (one of onnly 3 teams to beat ORU this year) got a lot of 2nd and 3rd opportunities, and once again, a 1 seed struggled with an 8 seed. It was tied 6-6 at the first media timeout. The refs were "letting them play" and you could see the frustration on Caleb Green's face. He did not score a single point in the first half.

By the way, the answer to that all-important question on the mind of every ORU fan: Larry Owens came on the court sporting a free-flowing Afro.

The struggles continued, and Western led 8-6 at the 2nd media timeout. Neither team was shooting very well. Scoring picked up with Western widening their lead to 16-13 at the 3rd media timeout. ORU toughened up on defense and Ken Tutt hit a 3 to tie the score at 16 at the final media timeout of the half. ORU turned it on, but Western hung with them, trailing only by 4 at the half, 25-21.

In the first 8 minutes of the 2nd half, ORU widened their lead to 37-30 and threatened to put the game away, but Western battled back to trail only by 3, 41-38 at the 3rd media timeout. Nothing comes easy for the 1 seeds today. Both teams continued to crash the offensive boards. ORU struggled but didn't wilt, widening the lead to 50-44 at the final media timeout, and finally put the game out of reach in the final minutes, winning 60-53.

Western Illinois shot 40% from the FT line, going 8-20. This was the difference in the game. ORU feels very fortunate to have survived their first round encounter.

Mid-Con suummary and Post-game quotes

The final game of the night was a game that coach Greg Kampe likely would like to forget. Like the other 3 games of the day, it too was a tough, close battle, but in truth, IUPUI was pretty much in control for most of the game. Brandon Cassise did his best Adam Morrison impersonation in the final minutes, draining three 3s from downtown with a hand in his face each time, but it just wasn't enough. Not too surprisingly, neither coach was at all pleased with the officiating. Kampe was positively irate, drawing a Technical late in the game and later spurning the approach of the ref involved to make peace. Hunter for his part was scolded by another ref for his trademark "coaching on the court" 6th-man routine.

The game was close in the first half, but in the 2nd half, IUPUI caught fire and it was an amazing performance for a very young Oakland team to stay in contention. But IUPUI was too much for them, winning 69-63.

ORU faces the winner of the Valpo-SUU game, while IUPUI faces the winner of the UMKC-CSU game.

Mid-Con summary and Post-game quotes