Women's basketball escapes with first-round MAC Tournament victory over Northern Illinois
Junior guard Da'Jourie Turner scored 23 points in the Central Michigan University women's basketball team's 63-51 victory over Western Michigan University on Saturday at McGuirk Arena. (Photo by Greg Cornwell)
The Central Michigan University women’s basketball team is headed to Cleveland.
With their season on the line, the Chippewas took down Northern Illinois University 49-44 in the first round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament on Monday night in DeKalb, Ill.
“It was a grinder, but we did it,” said Head Coach Sue Guevara. “Our defense and our rebounding got us to Cleveland.”
CMU advances to the second round where it will face rival Western Michigan University at noon on Wednesday. The two teams split the regular season series.
Clinging to a 47-44 lead with 17.9 seconds remaining, the Chippewas flirted with disaster late in the game.
Aleah Swary blocked an NIU 3-point shot and Da’Jourie Turner was sent to the line for the Chippewas.
Lorreal Jones sealed the victory grabbing a crucial rebound with 8.7 seconds remaining after Turner’s one-and-one free-throw attempt didn’t fall. Jones nail two free throws, sealing NIU’s fate and sending CMU to the second round of the tournament.
“(Jones) just went after the ball,” Guevara said. “She just took the ball right out of the kid’s hands without a foul. She just went for it, and that was a huge rebound.”
The Chippewas came into the game on a four-game losing streak, and had lost eight of their last nine games. CMU was also without four players including senior and second team All-MAC selection Crystal Bradford, and Cassandra Breen who was out with a concussion.
Turner and Jas’Mine Bracey led the way with 14 points, and senior Kerby Tamm added 12 points.
“I didn’t feel any pressure,” Bracey said. “As a senior, I knew there was a lot I had to do to keep my team on the upside. We just talked about playing together and winning it for everybody that was down and out.”
Guevara said she didn’t think NIU underestimated her team.
“There’s no way that team overlooked us,” she said. “Simply because we split (games) during the season. We knew it was going to be a really tough game.”
The difference in the game was CMU’s dominance in the post. The Chippewas owned the battle in the paint, outrebounding the Huskies 49-32. Jones pulled down a team-high 15 rebounds, and Bracey tallied 13 boards for CMU.
Neither team was able to get much going offensively, as the Chippewas shot 32 percent from the field, and NIU finished the game shooting 28 percent.
CMU held first-team All-MAC selection Amanda Corral to 11 points.
“We did a really nice job on Amanda Corral,” Guevara said. “We made it really hard for her to get her points. We always knew where she was the whole time. We just did a nice job disrupting their offense.”
The Chippewas opened the game with a 17-6 lead early in the first half. CMU held NIU to just 18 percent shooting in the first half.
Bracey said the Chippewas will embrace the underdog role for the remainder of the season.
“People aren’t expecting us to go anywhere, or do what other teams are doing,” she said. “We just have to play off of that and keep our positive energy.”
