2024 MAC women's basketball tournament

The 2024 MAC women's basketball tournament was the postseason basketball tournament for the 2023–24 college basketball season in the Mid-American Conference (MAC). The entire tournament was held at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, in Cleveland, Ohio on March 13 and 15-16, 2024.^[1] Kent State defeated Northern Illinois, Ball State, and Buffalo to win their fourth MAC tournament title and first since 2002, and advance to the 2024 NCAA tournament. Katie Shumate was the tournament MVP.^[2]

2024 MAC women's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	2023–24
Teams	8
Site	Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse Cleveland, Ohio
Champions	Kent State (4th title)
Winning coach	Todd Starkey (1st title)
MVP	Katie Shmuate (Kent State)
Television	CBSSN, ESPN+
MAC women's basketball tournaments ← 2023 2025 →

2023–24 Mid-American Conference women's basketball standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
Toledo	17	–	1		.944			28	–	6		.824
Ball State	16	–	2		.889			28	–	6		.824
Kent State †	13	–	5		.722			21	–	12		.636
Buffalo	10	–	8		.556			19	–	14		.576
Bowling Green	10	–	8		.556			16	–	15		.516
Northern Illinois	8	–	10		.444			15	–	16		.484
Ohio	8	–	10		.444			11	–	19		.367
Western Michigan	7	–	11		.389			12	–	18		.400
Miami (OH)	6	–	12		.333			9	–	20		.310
Akron	6	–	12		.333			11	–	18		.379
Central Michigan	4	–	14		.222			6	–	22		.214
Eastern Michigan	3	–	15		.167			7	–	22		.241
† 2024 MAC tournament winner

Format

As with the 2021, 2022, and 2023 tournaments, only the top eight teams qualify.^[3] The winner of the tournament will receive the MAC's automatic bid to the 2024 NCAA tournament.^[4]

Venue

The 2024 MAC tournament was held at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse for the 24th consecutive season. The venue is the home of the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA,^[5] has a capacity for basketball of 19,432, and is located in downtown Cleveland at One Center Court.^[6]

Seeds

Eight out of the 12 MAC teams qualified for the tournament. Teams were seeded by record within the conference, with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference records.^[7]

Seed	School	Conference record	Tiebreaker
1	Toledo	17–1
2	Ball State	16–2
3	Kent State	13–5
4	Buffalo	10–8	2–0 vs. Bowling Green
5	Bowling Grenn	10–8	0–2 vs. Buffalo
6	Northern Illinois	8–10	1–0 vs. Ohio
7	Ohio	8–10	0–1 vs. Northern Illinois
8	Western Michigan	7–11
DNQ	Miami	6–12	1–0 vs. Akron
DNQ	Akron	6–12	0–1 vs. Miami
DNQ	Central Michigan	4–14
DNQ	Eastern Michigan	3–15

Schedule

Session	Game	Time*	Matchup	Score	Attendance	Television
Quarterfinals – Wednesday, March 13 – Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland, OH
1	1	11:00 am	No. 1 Toledo vs. No. 8 Western Michigan	72–61	1,426	ESPN+
	2	30 mins after Game 1	No. 4 Buffalo vs. No. 5 Bowling Green	70–64
	3	30 mins after Game 2	No. 2 Ball State vs. No. 7 Ohio	77–53
	4	30 mins after Game 3	No. 3 Kent State vs. No. 6 Northern Illinois	63–60
Semifinals – Friday, March 15 – Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland, OH
2	5	10:00 am	No. 1 Toledo vs. No. 4 Buffalo	74–77OT		ESPN+
	6	30 mins after Game 5	No. 2 Ball State vs. No. 3 Kent State	50–65
Championship – Saturday, March 16 – Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland, OH
3	7	11:00 am	No. 4 Buffalo vs. No. 3 Kent State	60–78	2,292	CBSSN
*Game times in ET. ()-Rankings denote tournament seeding.

Source^[8]

Bracket

	Quarterfinals Wednesday, March 13, 2024					Semifinals Friday, March 15, 2024					Championship Saturday, March 16, 2024
	1	Toledo	72
	8	Western Michigan	61
						1	Toledo	74
						4	Buffalo	77*
	4	Buffalo	70
	5	Bowling Green	64
											4	Buffalo	60
											3	Kent State	78
	2	Ball State	77
	7	Ohio	53
						2	Ball State	50
						3	Kent State	65
	3	Kent State	63
	6	Northern Illinois	60

All-Tournament team

Tournament MVP – Katie Shumate

Player	Team
Quinesha Lockett	Toledo
Chellia Watson	Buffalo
Rana Elhusseini	Buffalo
Bridget Dunn	Kent State
Katie Shumate	Kent State

Source^[9]

See also

2024 MAC men's basketball tournament