Women's basketball team splits in SMU tournament
God bless Texas.
Looking for its first win of the season the CMU women's basketball team traveled to Dallas over Thanksgiving break and got it.
After falling to George Washington 94-62 on Friday, the Chips defeated Texas Southern 79-47 Saturday.
"The difference from Friday to Saturday was that we had one or two more scorers," Head Coach Fran Voll said. "We've been shooting well but haven't had that extra punch. We had that on Saturday with a balanced attack."
Senior guard Jodi Culbertson continued her strong play early in the season with a team and career-high 15 points on 5-of-11 shooting, all on three-pointers.
The five three-pointers tied Culbertson for third all-time in a single-game performance with Sally Sedlar, who had five against Toledo last season.
Sophomore Mandy Winner added 10 points and two rebounds off the bench, while Vershaun Jones led the Chips with 10 rebounds.
Molli Munz joined Culbertson with a record-caliber performance, dishing off a CMU record-tying 11 assists, to go along with 8 points in 35 minutes of action.
Although Central outshot the Colonials from the field in the first half and overall in the game, the story of the game was turnovers. The Chippewas committed 24, while GW only lost it 11 times.
Game number two was a totally different story for Voll's team as Central knocked off the Lady Tigers 79-47 to move its record to 1-2.
This time the Chips sprinted to a 33-21 halftime lead on 44 percent shooting for the half.
In half number two, it was more of the same as CMU outscored Texas Southern 46-26 on 50 percent shooting, including 5-8 from behind the arc.
Senior Shelly Woods led CMU with 19 points and nine boards in 31 minutes of play. Jones added 13 points and seven boards, while Munz dropped in 17 points and four assists.
Culbertson added 12 points and eight assists, becoming the only Chippewa to earn all-tournament team honors.
"We had great play from our two seniors, both Sherry and Jodi played well for us in both games," Voll said. "Vershaun Jones and Alicia Rozak stepped up for us in all areas. They gave us more dimensions to our game."
"This was a class tournament with four quality teams from tough conferences," he said. "George Washington and Southern Methodist were really impressive. Programs like that are what we'd like to emulate."
Voll was impressed with how his team has grown during the early part of the season.
"We are maturing as we get tested more. We've got a good rotation now before the MAC season," he said.
The Chippewas next game is Saturday afternoon as they travel to Ypsilanti to take on the Eastern Michigan Eagles in a 3 p.m. non-conference game.
