Wednesday's Scoreboard
Central Michigan 82, Western Michigan 71
Kent State 64, Saint Francis 67
Buffalo xx, Purdue xx
Stories Courtesy of MAC Sports Information
Central Michigan 82, Western Michigan 71
Box Score
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- Picking up where they left off.
Molly Davis scored 20 points on Wednesday as the Central Michigan women's basketball team began its quest for a fifth-consecutive Mid-American Conference championship with an 82-71 win over rival Western Michigan at McGuirk Arena.
It was the league opener and the first win of the season for CMU (1-1), which opened with a 93-75 nonconference loss two weeks ago at No. 25 Michigan.
"Our kids, they just want to play," said second-year CMU coach Heather Oesterle, whose team is ranked sixth in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25. "They don't care who it is. Today it was odd to play a conference game this early, but we didn't even look at it like that. It was more, we get to compete against somebody else and we're just very, very thankful for the opportunity."
Kent State 64, Saint Francis 67
Box Score
LORETTO, Pa. – A three-point attempt in the closing seconds was off the mark as Kent State fell to Saint Francis (Pa.), 67-64, in a road contest Wednesday evening. Neither team led by more than six throughout the contest, which featured eight ties and 10 lead changes.
The Golden Flashes (0-2) converted on each of their first five possessions in the final period to erase a five-point deficit and led 60-55 with 7:14 to play. Only one of the team's final 12 shots found the bottom of the net, however, and the Red Flash ended the night with a 12-4 run to escape with the victory on their homecourt.
Junior Lindsey Thall scored a game-high 17 points and grabbed a team-high seven boards. Sophomore Nila Blackford added 13 points. Junior Mariah Modkins played a solid floor game and finished with nine points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Kent State scored five points in under 20 seconds to take its largest lead of the game, 16-10, at the 2:05 mark of the first quarter. Lindsey Thall drove baseline and converted over her left shoulder while spinning back middle for her first field goal. Casey Santoro then boarded a quick shot by the Red Flash and found Annie Pavlansky on the wing for an open three-pointer before the defense could get set. Pavlansky finished with a career-high seven points. Saint Francis reeled off seven in row and the teams would end the period in a 19-19 tie.
The Flashes scored the first six points in the second quarter on a Clare Kelly three-point field goal and three-point play by Nila Blackford. It took more than four minutes to score again when Blackford drove strong to the basket and converted another three-point play, sparking a 9-0 run. Saint Francis made two baskets in the final minute of the half, but Mariah Modkins pushed the ball down the floor in the closing seconds and found an open lane to the basket for a layup as time expired to put Kent State ahead 36-32 going into the locker room.
Saint Francis outscored the Flashes 21-12 in the third quarter to take a five-point lead into the final 10 minutes of action.
Kent State opened the fourth with Linsey Marchese finding Thall on a high-low pass for a layup. Following an illegal screen by the Red Flash, Blackford knotted the score at 53-53 on her third traditional three-point conversion of the night. Katie Shumate put the Flashes back in the lead with a three-pointer the next time down the floor. Thall and Blackford finished in the paint on the two possessions that followed for a 60-55 lead with 7:14 remaining. Another Thall layup made it 62-58 at the 5:36 mark.
The Flashes would miss their next six shots and fell behind by five before Blackford connected on a pair of free throws with 1:26 to play. The defense stepped up and came through with a shot clock violation, 10-second backcourt violation and steal on the next three Saint Francis possessions, setting up a final chance to tie the game with 3.1 seconds to go. Marchese caught the inbound pass in the corner and fired a shot at the buzzer that was unable to find the bottom of the net.
Kent State will open the home schedule against Ohio at 2 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 11 for the Mid-American Conference opener for both teams.
Buffalo 82, Purdue 70
Box Score
West Lafayette, Ind. – The University at Buffalo women's basketball team battled hard but came up short in an 82-70 loss at Purdue on Wednesday night at Mackey Arena.
The Bulls were led by Cheyenne McEvans who recorded a career-high 16 points, all coming in the second half, to go along with six rebounds, three assists and a steal. Summer Hemphill and Elea Gaba added 12 points each and Adebola Adeyeye also got into double figures with 10 points.
Hemphill got to work early, scoring on back-to-back buckets and Adeyeye added an offensive rebound putback to give UB an early 6-5 lead at the 7:09 mark and they would lead 9-8 at the first media timeout. The Bulls offense would then stall and Purdue would take advantage of a two-plus minute UB scoring drought to take an 18-12 lead at the end of the first.
Adeyeye continued to crash the boards as she ended the scoring drought with a putback off glass to cut the Purdue lead to six early in the second quarter. A 7-1 Purdue run put the Boilermakers up 12 but Adeyeye and Hemphill responded with back-to-back buckets to cut the lead to 27-19 at the media timeout. After Purdue went back up by 10, Dyaisha Fair found Jessika Schiffer in transition for three and then picked off a pass for a steal and score to cut the lead to five and force a Purdue timeout at the 2:14 mark. The Boilermakers would respond with back-to-back three's out of the timeout and they would take a 37-27 lead at the half.
The Boilermakers shooting continued to heat up to start the third quarter as Brooke Moore drained a three in the corner on the opening possession to spark an 8-0 run in under a minute as Purdue increased their lead to 18 at the 9:13 mark. After Purdue extended the run to 15-4 the Bulls answered with a 5-0 run, capped by a Schiffer three to cut the lead to 52-36 but Purdue would take a 56-36 at the media timeout. The Bulls clawed back as McEvans and Gaba put together a 7-0 run in less than a minute to cut the lead to 55-43 at the 4:18 mark. A kick out triple by McEvans cut the lead to 57-46 with just over three minutes to go in the quarter but the Boilermakers would respond with a 7-0 run and take a 68-52 lead at the end of the third.
Both teams would trade baskets to start the fourth quarter as Purdue maintained a 75-60 lead at the media timeout. Schiffer drained a three from the wing to cut the lead to 77-63 at the 3:31 mark and later, and and-one by McEvans pulled UB within 12 in the final seconds but that would be as close as the Bulls would get.
After going 1-for-28 from beyond the arc coming into the game, Purdue shot 11-of-19 from deep and scored 34 points off of a season-high 21 UB turnovers. Buffalo controlled the offensive glass, scoring 25 second chance points off of 15 offensive rebounds but lost the over battle of the boards 36-32.
The Bulls return to action on Sunday as they host Akron in the Mid-American Conference opener at 2pm.
