The emotional roller coaster left Miami University’s women’s basketball team feeling joyfully exhausted.

Burdened by the spectre of seven straight losses to rival Bowling Green, the RedHawks rose up and halted that streak Thursday night by conquering the Falcons on their home floor.

Courtney Osborn (14), Erica Almady (13) and Hannah Robertson (11) topped the scoring as MU squandered an 11-point lead in the second half, then gained sole possession of first place in the Mid-American Conference East Division with a 57-54 triumph.

“I’m very proud of our team,” Miami coach Maria Fantanarosa said. “It was definitely a total team effort for 40 minutes on both ends of the court. They work hard, and they should enjoy this. The Bowling Green part of it, (the media) can play that up, whereas we’re going to be back tomorrow and worry about Kent State. But tonight we’re just going to enjoy another step in Miami being a strong contender.”

An enthusiastic Stroh Center crowd of 1,453 watched the RedHawks fall behind 11-2 in the first six-plus minutes, then score 32 of the next 44 points to forge a 34-23 advantage.

The Falcons rallied to knot the contest at 47, but Osborn’s 3-pointer with 3:26 left pushed MU ahead for good.

“I just want to say congratulations to Maria and the RedHawks tonight,” BGSU coach Jennifer Roos said. “They were extremely physical. They had some seniors step up. Their chemistry is fantastic. You could tell they wanted this game from jump. I know a lot of people look at our Toledo-BG rivalry as the biggest, but this is pretty close.”

Alexis Rogers, a Lakota West High School graduate, paced Bowling Green with 19 points and nine rebounds. Teammate Danielle Havel added nine points and 10 boards.

The Falcons dropped to 12-6 overall and 3-2 in the MAC East. Miami improved to 12-6, 4-1, with its fourth consecutive win.

“They can enjoy tonight,” Rogers said. “We’re going to focus on the next game and not get too low over one game. I think at the end of the season, with the way the MAC is playing out, the second time we play them may be for something more valuable than this game. This game was kind of about pride. I still think we can walk away with our heads held high.”

It was a nerve-jangling finish for two squads that combined to sink just 5 of 34 treys (MU was 2 of 16, BGSU was 3 of 18).

The RedHawks came up with three monster offensive boards in the last 40 seconds, two by Kirsten Olowinski. Miami’s all-time leading rebounder was limited to six points, but grabbed 15 caroms and now has 1,009 in her career.

The visitors were clinging to a 56-54 edge when Olowinski rebounded an Osborn miss with 40 seconds left. With just under 10 seconds remaining, the same thing happened again, and Olowinski was fouled with 6.1 on the clock.

She stepped to the line and couldn’t get either shot to fall. On the second attempt, with no Miami players in the lane, Robertson suddenly appeared in the middle of a bunch of white shirts and snatched the rebound.

“The thought process is, Kirsten Olowinski is going to make the shot and I’m going to guard the in-bound,” Robertson said. “It’s just kind of one of those things where you see the ball and just react. Obviously they weren’t expecting it because no one was in the lane.”

Robertson went to the stripe with 3.6 seconds left and converted the front end of the bonus. She missed the second shot, but BGSU could do no better than a long, desperation 3-pointer that was off the mark at the buzzer.

“I think we were all confident. I think we were all fine,” Fantanarosa said. “We knew we were going to have to play every possession. I don’t think we blinked at all.”

Rogers described Robertson’s rebound as “heartbreaking” and “miscommunication on our part.” Roos admitted it was the kind of play that will stick with her for a while.

“It makes me want to work on rebounding right now as opposed to waiting until tomorrow’s practice,” Roos said in the postgame press conference. “When games get tight, unfortunately kids end up watching the ball, and we watched the ball instead of boxing out. We will correct that.”

The first-year Bowling Green coach had special praise for Almady, a junior forward who missed five games earlier this season because of a knee injury. She was 5 of 6 from the floor and 3 of 3 at the foul line while collecting three rebounds and two assists.

“The difference maker in my opinion was the play of Erica Almady,” Roos said. “This was by far her best game in our series against them. She stepped up and was a big-time X factor for them.”

Almady scored nine of MU’s first 13 points and kept the visitors from falling behind by a large margin early in the game.

“An O-board was the first putback, so I guess that kind of gave me some confidence,” Almady said. “Then my teammates were getting good shots, but they weren’t falling for them. I just knew I needed to step up and be a scorer at that moment in time.”

Almady and Rogers were Lakota West teammates for two years before Almady moved to Cleveland. They were anything but friendly on the floor Thursday.

“We’re still close,” Almady said. “It’s just competitive out there and we both get really competitive, as you probably saw.”

“Me and Erica are really good friends off the court, but on the court, I wouldn’t call us friends whatsoever,” Rogers said. “There’s no laughing or joking during the game. It’s strictly business.”

The Falcons shot just 37.0 percent from the floor, 28.0 percent in the first half. Miami shot 41.1 percent and was only 9 of 17 at the foul line.

“Honestly, just not being able to score in the first half I think would be my biggest frustration,” said Roos, whose team trailed 26-21 at the break. “They did a good job of switching their defensive assignments almost on every possession.”

Haley Robertson had six points, five rebounds and three steals for MU, which travels to Kent State on Sunday afternoon. That game likely won’t have a postseason feel like Thursday’s showdown.

“I think it’s a blast. I think that’s why we play,” Hannah Robertson said. “Walking into the Stroh Center, being in the locker room, getting ready for the tip, we knew every single second needed to be played out. As a player, you’re excited to finally get that chance to compete against a great Bowling Green team.”

Added Almady, “I love playing in front of a crowd. Our emotions were up and down a bit, but we just knew we had to calm down. It was really exciting.”

The RedHawks have shown a tendency to struggle early in games. Fantanarosa said she wasn’t worried about the latest slow start.

“Today we finally had our projected starting lineup together, and they were good shots — they just didn’t fall,” the Miami coach said. “I don’t think we were too hyped. I don’t think we were too down. I think the shots just didn’t go in.

“I could hear our players continuing to say to each other, ‘We’re all right. We’re fine.’ And they just kept playing through it. They stayed confident and played together and fought through the obstacles. This is becoming a very scrappy, blue-collar team. They’re going to begin to start hanging their hats on outworking people.”

BGSU visits Eastern Michigan on Sunday afternoon.