Keane's 20-point performance leads MSU to victory, Spartans advance in WNIT

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Freshman forward Kalisha Keane has an admirer. No, not an MSU women’s basketball fan, but Bowling Green women’s basketball head coach Curt Miller.

Keane was the No. 1 worry for Miller heading into the second round of the WNIT on Saturday.

“(Keane) was our worst matchup and she’s phenomenal,” Miller said. “I think she could play anywhere in the country. ... With that said, foul trouble kept Kalisha out of it a little bit in the first half, and wow were we happy.”

In the end, Keane’s 20 points, two steals and six rebounds led MSU in taking down the Falcons, 74-66, to advance to the tournament’s third round.

During his postgame press conference, Miller retold a story about how badly he wanted the Canadian native to be a player on his team — no matter where he was coaching.

“We got a tape in from a Canadian player, and while we watched the tape we were like, ‘Who the heck is that other kid on this tape?’ — it was Kalisha Keane when she was very young, a freshman I think,” Miller said.

“I said, ‘I don’t care where we are coaching when we get older, we have got to get that kid’ and I looked at my staff and said, ‘Even if we are coaching UConn we’ve got to get Kalisha Keane.’”

Miller went on to say that Bowling Green had to roll the dice when it came to defending Keane, and decided to guard her from the inside out.

MSU head coach Suzy Merchant harped on Keane early in the season about ill-advised shots and a lack of focus on the court.

Now Merchant said Keane has a smarter shot selection.

“Tonight she did not take one bad shot,” Merchant said. “She did a great job on the boards for us and got a couple key steals as well.”

Keane sparked a 20-7 run to open the second half, scoring nine points in the first three minutes.

But the game was far from a one-woman show.

Sophomore guard Mandy Piechowski has put in two weeks of heavy 3-point shooting drills in preparation for the postseason and it showed Saturday when she went 4-for-5 from beyond the arc.

“Coach and I have been looking at a lot of film and also with (assistant) coach Shane (Clipfell) I’ve been doing some different stuff with my feet because I’ve been inconsistent with my footwork and my shot,” Piechowski said.

Merchant said Piechowski’s confidence from the first second of the game helped the team get into a rhythm.

Miller said Piechowski and senior guard Courtney Davidson were the X-factors in the game, combining for 20 points.

“If Mandy was going to have that type of game, then we were going to shake their hands at the end and tell them to go win this,” Miller said.

“And that’s what we had to do. It was really a one-or-two-possession game and maybe if Mandy bricked a dang 3-pointer we would’ve pulled it off.”

The Spartans shot 60 percent from beyond the arc and 45.8 percent from the field.

Next on the Spartans’ WNIT list is the winner of tonight’s game between Kansas and Evansville.

Regardless of the opponent, the game will tip off at 7 p.m. Thursday at Breslin Center.

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