Eidson, women fall to Buffalo
Greg Burghardt
The women’s basketball team set its goal to get to Cleveland, site of the later rounds of the MAC Tournament.
The reality is that the squad lost to Buffalo Saturday in the first round, 72-53, ending hopes of a trip to Cleveland.
“Buffalo’s defense was just very, very good,” said Head Coach Eileen Kleinfelter. “We didn’t have the size, depth or stamina that they had.”
The team shot 49 percent in the first half. The second half told a different story, however.
“We just didn’t shoot the ball well in the second half. It’s that simple,” Kleinfelter said, referring to her team’s 5-28 shooting in the final 20 minutes.
Leading the way for Central was senior co-captain Laurie Henderson with 14 points and five rebounds. The other co-captain, senior Desiree Eidson, added nine points to close out her career.
With the nine points, Eidson became just the 14th player in CMU history to reach the 1,000 point career milestone. The senior ended her career with 1,008 points and 496 rebounds.
“To reach that mark is special and it’s ironic that it came down to the final game. It’s bittersweet that it had to happen like that,” Henderson said.
Kleinfelter could not commend Eidson enough for her stellar career.
“That (milestone) says an awful lot. Des has been a huge contributor throughout her career,” she said. “But as far as the game went, we didn’t have another Des out there.”
With the loss, the team finishes the season 11-17 overall and 5-10 in conference play. The squad improved one game from last year’s overall record, and had a three-game upswing in MAC play.
Prior to the MAC Tournament, the team ended its regular season with a 62-50 loss at Toledo.
Freshman point guard Erin Kuhl went 4-6 from three-point range, scoring 14 points to lead the Chippewas. Henderson added 11 points in her final regular season game.
The senior co-captains from CMU didn’t have much to enjoy about their last time playing Western March 1 as the team lost 87-65.
Junior Raina Harmon had a career-high 12 rebounds, including seven on the offensive end.
Notes: Freshman Erin Kuhl was named to the MAC All-Freshman Team Monday. The guard was ranked fifth in the conference in three-point percentage with a mark of .421. She also was second in the MAC in steals with 2.04 per game.
