Iowa 87, Central Michigan 72
Box Score
SAN ANTONIO – Right down to the end, they kept swinging.
The Central Michigan women's basketball team saw its season come to an end on Sunday when the 12th-seeded Chippewas fell to fifth-seeded Iowa, 87-72, in an NCAA Tournament game at the Alamodome.
The Chippewas finished 18-9 in a season in which they absorbed more than their share of body blows and yet came on strong to win the Mid-American Conference Tournament and earn an NCAA berth for the third time since 2018.
"I just told our team I'm very proud of them for what we've been through this year and to go on a little run at the end of the year and win the MAC Tournament, I'm just very proud of our seniors as well and appreciative of all they've done for our program to get us where we are today," second-year coach Heather Oesterle said in her postgame press conference. "They've made everybody at Central so proud. The community, the staff, I'm just very, very proud of them."
Big Blow
It was another heavy blow, this time in the form of early foul trouble to star guard Micaela Kelly, that ultimately led to their undoing against Iowa, the nation's second-highest scoring team led by freshman Cailtin Clark, the nation's leading scorer.
Kelly picked up her third foul with just over a minute to play in the first quarter and went to the bench.
"It was frustrating, obviously … so I had to find a way stay positive and start cheering for my teammates," Kelly said. "While I'm not out there I can still be a presence and bring some type of energy off the bench.
"I'm super proud of this group, our coaching staff, my teammates. We've overcome a lot of obstacles, a lot of adversity. The way the season ended, I can't be more proud of what we've done."
When Kelly sat down, CMU trailed by just one, 19-18. She never picked up her fourth foul and she scored 23 points in 27 minutes, but the threat of losing their best defender and leading scorer to fouls clearly altered the Chippewas' game plan.
"I thought that was the difference in the game to be very honest," Oesterle said. "I try not to complain to the officials, but when you take your best player out with three fouls in the first quarter, that obviously affected us.
"I thought we had momentum to start the game; we were scoring, we were moving the ball and then you take Micaela Kelly out of the game and it hurts us. Our team runs around Micaela, and it runs around Molly Davis, and when one of them is out we really struggle. … I was hoping to have (Kelly) playing 35-40 minutes today and I thought some of those fouls were a little cheap."
