Guevara: Team will 'bounce back' following blowout loss to No. 1 Irish
On Friday night, Central Michigan women's basketball played a game against No. 1 Notre Dame that head coach Sue Guevara called a great opportunity for her team.
After losing 107-47 to the Irish in the first round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament, Guevara said the Chippewas would learn from playing one of the top teams in the nation.
“Notre Dame is the No. 1 team in the country for a reason,” she said. “They were stronger, faster, more physical and just straight up the better team tonight. We missed open shots all night long and I think the pressure of playing against the best team in the country got to us.”
The Chippewas were out rebounded 45 to 33, lost the turnover margin 20 to 11 and shot 27 percent while the Irish shot 61.5 percent from the field.
Despite the lopsided score, Guevara pointed out positives the team had in the match up. She highlighted a few individual performances.
“Reyna Frost played some solid minutes for us and was great on the glass," she said. "Aleah (Swary) found a lot of consistency from behind the 3-point line and played hard for all of her minutes."
Frost totaled 11 rebounds in 34 minutes of action. Swary went 5-of-10 from behind the 3-point line and scored a team-high 15 points in 22 minutes.
Defensively, Central Michigan allowed five Notre Dame players to score in double-figures and fouled the Irish 20 times.
Moving forward, Guevara said she knows what will give her team more success as the season moves along.
“Games like this turn into a major learning point you can come back to as the season goes on,” she said. “We need to get the ball inside more and use our bigs. More of our solid shooters need to find some consistency from 3-point range.”
The Chippewas will look to regroup when they take on Furman at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 18 at McGuirk Arena.
“It was our first game of the season and that was the number one team in the country,” Guevara said. “We don't have to play them again. We have a long season ahead of us with so much to play for. This team can bounce back.”
