COLUMN: Women were impressive considering circumstances
Senior forward Lorreal Jones (2) puts up a shot during the Central Michigan University women’s basketball team’s loss to Western Michigan University on March 11 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.
Amidst a season overshadowed by high-profile injuries, the Central Michigan University women’s basketball team made a small run in the Mid-American Conference tournament.
The preseason pick to win the Western Division ended up playing only two post-season games, which might cause some to call this season a failure.
The bar was set high at the beginning of the season with a team including stars Crystal Bradford and Jessica Green. Early on, what was Head Coach Sue Guevara supposed to do when she lost two 1,000-point scorers?
She had to trust her bench would help carry the load. While the team struggled to do this at the end of the season, it all came together in the first round against Northern Illinois.
The Chippewas put together one of their best defensive efforts against the Huskies by holding NIU to 13 first half points. The success of the defense got the Chippewas to Cleveland, which was all Guevara could ask for.
A lot of things can happen when a team gets a win in a tournament. CMU got the job done and gave itself the opportunity for a short postseason run.
The other aspect of this season’s success is getting the freshmen experience early in their careers. The five CMU freshmen combined for 24 percent of the Chippewas’ total minutes this season, earning 27 starts.
During those minutes, the freshmen scored 324 points, which makes up 16 percent of CMU’s total points this season.
Those numbers only tell part of the story. With the growing pains out of the way in the first season, they will have a greater ability to learn in the coming seasons.
Couple the experience with the return of Da’Jourie Turner and Jewel Cotton, and the Chippewas look like a formidable team going into the next season.
It would be too much to ask of this team to make it back to a MAC Championship game next season, but a seasoned freshman class with just enough upperclassmen leadership could lead to another trip to Cleveland in a year of rebuilding.
