Women's basketball regains MAC West lead with win against Western Michigan
Head coach Sue Guevara summed up her 171st win by giving credit to the coach who previously held the record alone.
The Chippewas defeated Western Michigan 94-83 to give Guevara her 171st win, tying Donita Davenport’s the most wins in CMU women's basketball history.
“I always did admire Donita (Davenport) when I wasn't here yet. She did a phenomenal job in her time here,” Guevara said. “To be honest, I had no idea I was even near that record, I’m just focused on winning down the remaining stretch of tough games we have.”
With the win, and Ball State's loss to Ohio Saturday, the Chippewas (18-6, 10-2 Mid-American Conference) regained the MAC West Division lead thanks to CMU's 101-92 win against the Cardinals earlier in the season.
Junior forward Cassie Breen said she thinks Guevara is a great coach for the way she pushes her and her teammates to their goals.
“Sometimes we don't hit all of our challenges but (Guevara) is very charismatic by always pushing us to that limit,” Breen said. “If we’re not hitting it the first time, we will get it the next quarter. Of course she is going to tear us a new one at that point, but she is always there to pat us on the back afterward.
“She earned all of it, it’s very well deserved.”
The game was in honor of the annual “Play4Kay” game that is for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. CMU wore pink uniforms to honor the cause.
Senior forward Jewel Cotton and Breen led the Chippewas in scoring today. Breen finished with 23 points while going a perfect 8-for-8 from the free-throw line down the stretch. Cotton had 21 points and added four rebounds.
Cotton said it was all about "slowing her game down" today after not being able to do so in recent games.
“The last couple of games I haven't been getting the shots that I wanted to get," Cotton said. "I felt like I was giving the opponent what they wanted. I just told myself take it slow. I have a mid-range game, so use it. It worked well for me today.”
After CMU scored the opening bucket, the Broncos went on a 7-0 run to jump out in front early. However, the Chippewas answered with a 7-0 run of their own highlighted by a couple of Breen and junior guard Aleah Swary 3-pointers.
Breen continued to lead to Chippewas in scoring with a couple of nice jumpers and a pair of triples, giving CMU a 33-24 lead going into a 5:59 timeout. The teams basically traded buckets until the half, where the score was 45-36 in favor of CMU.
WMU (14-9, 5-7) was shooting extremely well at 68.1 percent from the field going into the half, but had eight turnovers that helped CMU hold their lead. CMU was also shooting a high percentage at 58.1 percent.
WMU pulled within six points after a 6-0 run around the five minute mark in the third quarter, but then Cotton answered with back-to-back jumpers to put CMU back up by ten points.
WMU trimmed the Chippewa lead back down to just single-digits when sophomore guard Presley Hudson came up big.
The Wayland native scored eight points in the final two minutes, including a step-back 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded to end the third quarter, giving CMU a 70-59 lead heading to the fourth.
CMU was ahead by more than 10 points for most of the fourth quarter, controlling the tempo of the game, to eventually shoot free throws and ice the victory.
Guevara said that it was a tough day due to all of the fouls slowing down the game.
“I thought it was hard because of the 27 fouls (WMU) called and 22 fouls (CMU) called because it made it hard to really get any kind of a flow,” Guevara said. “When the game is being called a certain way we need to adjust sooner. The next time we go out we have to be much better defensively, being disciplined is what we need to do.”
Along with Breen and Cotton, three Chippewas also scored in double figures. Hudson scored 15 points on 4-for-7 shooting from the field and went 3-for-5 from beyond the arc, while adding seven assists. Junior forward Tinara Moore scored 12 points while adding six rebounds and a block. Sophomore forward Reyna Frost was just on rebound away from her sixth double-double on the year, finishing with 10 points and nine boards.
CMU shot 57.1 percent from the field and 43.8 percent (7-for-16) from 3-point distance. The Broncos shot 51.7 percent from the field on the game, led by sophomore forward Brenna Mobley who had a game-high 27 points and added eight rebounds.
CMU will return to action on the road against Ohio in another battle of two teams at the top of their divisions in the MAC. The game will start at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
