Central Michigan 72, UMASS 70
Michigan State 69, Eastern Michigan 61
Recaps courtesy of MAC Athletic Communications Departments
Central Michigan 72, UMASS 70
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - A season-opening win, yes.
Style points? Nada.
"I know it's the first game," Central Michigan women's basketball coach Sue Guevara said Sunday after the Chippewas opened with a 72-70 victory at McGuirk Arena over UMass. "I thought it was as lackluster of a performance as I have seen. I'm glad we won, I just don't like how we won.
"Can a win be disappointing? I'm glad we won, I'm glad we won. But we really have to keep working on this process if we're going to do what we want to do."
The Chippewas entered the season with incredibly high expectations with four starters returning -- including Mid-American Conference Player of the Year Crystal Bradford -- from a 20-12 team that won the MAC West in 2013-14.
They opened against UMass for the second straight year. Last season, they drilled the Minutewomen, 105-61.
"I felt like," Guevara said, revealing her take on what perhaps the vibe was surrounding her team before tipoff, that "we beat this team by 40 points last year so we could just come in and play.
"That is where we have to be mentally tougher to understand it's not who we're playing, it's about our performance. That's what it's about. That starts with our seniors."
Bradford, who suffered a knee injury at the end of last season, clearly wasn't 100 percent. Still, she finished with 17 points, seven steals and five assists in 27 minutes. She also had six turnovers.
"First game back, obviously a couple nerves," Bradford said. "I don't know if this (close game) is a good or bad thing. It could be good or bad. But we're a second-half team. We just played sluggish today. We still got the win, but our performance could have been much better.
"Still working on getting my game legs back and getting back into the flow of things. Hence my six turnovers. But I felt pretty good."
Bradford, who started and played in spurts of about three minutes, re-entered the game with under nine minutes remaining and the Chippewas up one, 47-46.
Her jumper with 8 minutes, 2 seconds left ignited a 17-2 run after which the Chippewas led, 64-48, with 4:55 left.
In the 3-minute, 7-second span, Bradford scored 10 points, dished out three assists and made two steals. She hit three of her four field goal attempts and both of her free throw tries.
CMU led, 71-58, with under 40 seconds to play. The Minutewomen, who opened the season on Friday with a 63-41 loss at Western Michigan, hit two 3-pointers during a 12-1 game-closing run that made it close. The final triple came at the buzzer.
"We had 91 possessions and when you have 20 turnovers, that's not very good, not for a team that has lofty goals," Guevara said. "When you give up 12 points in 45 seconds, there's a trust factor that gets lost in all that.
"We cannot have this type of a lackluster performance against the next team we're going to play, or we will get run off the floor."
That next team is 11th-ranked Kentucky, which visits McGuirk Arena on Saturday, Nov. 22. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m.
Kerby Tamm hit three three-pointers en route to 13 points for the Chippewas, while Jewel Cotton, a redshirt sophomore who drew the start alongside the four returning senior starters - Bradford, Tamm, Jas'Mine Bracey and Jessica Green - had 11 points and 11 rebounds for her first career double-double.
Green also had 11 rebounds to go along with eight points.
Cierra Dillard scored 16 points and Rashida Timbilla added 10 for UMass (0-2).
Michigan State 69, Eastern Michigan 61
EAST LANSING, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) – The Eastern Michigan University women's basketball team dropped its first road contest of the 2014-15 campaign, falling to No. 14/15 Michigan State University (1-0) at the Breslin Center, Nov. 16. The Eagles (1-1) cut the deficit to just four points with 2:27 to play, but the Spartans (1-0) closed the contest with seven of the game's final 11 points run to take the non-conference affair.
Sophomore Janay Morton (Brooklyn Park, Minn.-Osseo) powered the EMU offense scoring a team-best 13 points, while Shannise Heady (Hazel Crest, Ill.-Seton Hall) added 10 points for the Eagles. Sophomore offensive catalyst Cha Sweeney (Toledo, Ohio-Rogers) notched nine points before fouling out of the contest with just over 10 minutes to play. Transfer Rachel Kehoe (St. Clair, Mich.-St Clair-St. Clair CC) led the Eagles at the basket, pulling down six rebounds, while Sweeney and Heady each grabbed five rebounds for the Green and White.
The Eagles shot just 35.4 percent from the floor for the entire contest, powered behind 43.8 percent shooting from the floor in the second half. EMU notched 12 team steals with Sasha Dailey (Toledo, Ohio-Rogers) leading the way for the second-straight contest with four. Eastern Michigan forced the Spartans to turnover the ball 21 times, while EMU had 19 miscues. The Green and White found some power in the paint despite being undersized, scoring 30 points compared to MSU's 28.
Michigan State saw an impressive showing from Aerial Powers who capped off her afternoon with 20 points, 15 rebounds, three assists, and three steals. Senior Tori Jankoska matched Powers' points with 20 and grabbed eight rebounds for MSU. The Spartans out-rebounded Eastern Michigan, 55-39, in the 40-minute contest, while scoring 17 points off of turnovers and shooting 33.3 percent from the floor. Michigan State converted on 22-of-32 shooting from the charity stripe.
The Spartans got out to a quick 7-1 lead over EMU, but the Eagle fought their way back to just a two-point deficit going on a 5-0 run in large part due of two steals from Dailey in the backcourt. After holding MSU to a 6:35 scoring drought, Eastern took its first lead of the contest at the 13:23 mark in the first half when Morton sunk a three-pointer from the top of the arc to give the Eagles a 9-8 advantage over Michigan State.
The Green and White kept up its quick pace, taking a seven-point lead when Morton made an easy jumper to give the Eagles a 21-14 lead, but the Spartans answered back with a 5-0 run of their own to come within two. The contest continued to go back-and-forth between the two teams, tying the game on three separate occasions before Michigan State took the narrow three-point lead, 27-24, heading into the final media timeout.
EMU could only get two final shots to fall in the remaining three minutes of the first half, allowing the Spartans to take a 34-28 advantage into the locker room. The Eagles were led by Morton who tallied eight points in the first half, while Sweeney added seven points, four rebounds, two steals, two assists, and one block. Kehoe and Heady matched Sweeney's team-best four rebounds in the first half of action, while Dailey continued to be a force on defense, swiping three balls.
The Eagles shot just 27.3 percent from the floor in the first half, but made up for it from three-point range as Morton drained two from beyond the arc. EMU continued to prove their defensive power, grabbing seven steals compared to MSU's four and forcing the Spartans to turn the ball over 13 times.
Michigan State's Aerial Powers propelled the Spartan offense reaching a double-double in the first half with 12 points and 10 rebounds while also dishing out two assists and notching two steals. Tori Jankoska added nine points to the Spartan scoring effort, while Michigan State pulled down 34 rebounds in the first half compared to EMU's 22.
Eastern Michigan had a 4-0 run coming out of the locker room in the second half to come within two of the Spartans, but Michigan State quickly extended its lead to 42-34 with six-consecutive points, forcing Head Coach Tori Verdi to call a timeout.
Michigan State found a groove, while the Eagles suffered a 3:12 scoring drought, allowing the Spartans to match its largest lead of the contest at 14. Following a stoppage in play, EMU found two quick baskets, including a trey from Bucknor, to cut the lead to 10. The Eagles found some momentum on a fastbreak rebound from freshman Micah Robinson (Ann Arbor, Mich.-Huron) and a turnover by the Spartans under the EMU basket. After a made free throw from Morton, EMU forced a second-straight turnover as Morton swiped the ball, making an easy layup bringing the Eagles within six, 58-52, with less than seven minutes to play. The two teams started to match basket-for-basket with the Green and White still trailing by six. With 3:48 left to play, Eastern Michigan's aggressive defense forced a 10-second violation, but EMU was unable to convert getting the ball back into MSU's hands.
The Green and White continued to put the pressure on the MSU offense when Bucknor forced a turnover before Heady made an easy jumper from the left wing, but a three-pointer with just three seconds on the shot clock from Anna Morrissey extended the Michigan State lead to seven before the senior sunk two free throws to give MSU the 67-58 advantage with less than a minute left to play.
Robinson rushed the ball down the court with less than 30 seconds to play, laying up an easy shot and draining the and-one for her first points of the contest. The Eagles were unable to find any final baskets in the remaining seconds, falling 69-61 to the nationally-ranked Spartans.
Eastern was powered behind 43.8 percent shooting in the second half to keep pace with the Spartans, while holding MSU to just 39.3 percent shooting from the floor. Heady led the Eagles in the second half with six of her 10 points, while Morton and Bucknor added five apiece.
The Eagles will stay on the road traveling to Edinburg, Texas to go up against Texas-Pan American Saturday, Nov. 22. Tip off is slated for 1 p.m. CT.
