Women's basketball opens Mid-American Conference play with win over Kent State
It did not take Reyna Frost very long to introduce herself to the Mid-American Conference.
The freshman forward scored 27 points, pulled down nine rebounds and catapulted the Central Michigan women's basketball team to an 81-61 win over Kent State Saturday at McGuirk Arena.
CMU (7-5) began its quest for the MAC West title against a MAC East opponent it has not lost to since 2012. The Chippewas have now won six consecutive conference openers.
“A lot of people were focusing on teammates like (sophomore guard Cassie Breen), (sophomore forward Tinara Moore) and other people who have had great games," Frost said. "That really opened it up for me. My teammates do a good job of finding me. Today I was just finishing well.”
Frost led the Chippewas with eight points in the first quarter. She also created for her teammates in the first half, like when she found Moore for a bucket, which put the Chippewas up 25-18 in the second quarter.
A jumper from Frost extended the Chippewas' lead to 28-23. Five straight points from the Golden Flashes tied the game up at 28, but Frost responded by scoring four straight points to give CMU a 32-28 lead and herself a career-high 14 points.
Frost scored as time expired in the first half to give her 16 points after 20 minutes. A trip to the locker room at halftime did not deteriorate her performance as she scored the first CMU points of the second half.
The freshman exited the contest with 3:39 left in the game. Although Frost finished with 27 points, the six-foot forward said nothing is more important then pulling down the boards as she has a goal to set the CMU rebounding record in her four years here.
“Rebounding is really important to me 100 percent of the time," Frost said. "If I don’t have a lot of rebounds, I get really upset, no matter how many points I have. I know it’s really effective for me to get rebounds. If I don’t have the putback, then my other teammates are open and they can hit the three or the jumper.”
Frost was aided by Tinara Moore, who scored 11 points and grabbed 12 rebounds off the bench. CMU Head Coach Sue Guevara said was pleased with Moore's play.
“That’s the Tinara that I like to see," Guevara said. "She has 12 rebounds. That’s big. I’ll take that any day. It was good for us to get the consistency scoring-wise because that has been a big problem for us.”
Guevara added the post play of Frost and Moore was essential for her shooting-heavy team to have success.
“We know we have 3-point shooters, but I think in order for those 3-point shooters to be open we have to establish some sort of a presence inside," she said. "I thought we did a nice job of getting the ball to the high post and Reyna was finishing.”
Freshman guard Presley Hudson, Breen and redshirt junior forward Jasmine Harris had 10 points each in a game which saw CMU shoot nearly 46 percent from the field.
“We talked about being patient and not just taking and jacking it up right away but making the extra pass and we were going to have a pretty high percentage shot and we did," Guevara said.
CMU emptied its bench late and the entire active roster saw the floor. CMU had 18 assists and 10 turnovers and won the rebounding battle 42-34.
The Chippewas held Kent State top scorer Jordan Korinek (16 points per game) to only 10. Tyra James led the Golden Flashes (3-8) with 14 points off the bench.
What's next
Frost said the win was a good way to kick off the team's MAC slate of games and is excited to progress in her young career with the Chippewas.
“Being able to start and getting this opportunity is great and all my hard work is paying off," she said. "I’m really happy."
CMU will now embark on a five-day road trip before the Spring 2016 semester starts with trips to Buffalo and Akron next week. The Chippewas will visit New York to take on the Bulls at 7 p.m. Wednesday in its second MAC game of the season.
