CMU women's basketball falls to Ohio on the road
After being outscored 31-11 by Ohio in the second quarter, Central Michigan women's basketball started to mount a comeback in the second half to get within six in the third quarter but ultimately came up short as CMU lost 83-75 on Saturday.
The Chippewas and the Bobcats both move to 6-19 overall and 4-10 in Mid-American Conference play following the matchup.
In the first quarter, CMU shot 10-of-17 (58.8%) from the field and 4-of-7 (57.1%) from the three-point line while Ohio matched the Chippewas from the field, shooting 10-of-17 (58.8%).
Freshman guard Bridget Utberg led CMU, scoring six points in the quarter. Graduate student Mikala Hall and freshman Sydney Harris both scored five points in the quarter. CMU struggled to stop the guard play of Ohio as Yaya Felder finished the quarter with nine points. Going into the second the two teams were tied at 26.
The Chippewas could not keep the offensive production going into the second as they were outscored 31-11. The Bobcats started off the quarter on a 12-0 run as CMU did not score its first basket until the 4:37 mark. Ohio guard Jaya McClure led the Bobcats, scoring 12 points in the quarter while Utberg led the Chippewas with five points, as she was one of three players to score in the quarter. The Bobcats took a 57-37 lead going into halftime.
Both Felder and McClure for Ohio had 18 points at halftime. Ohio controlled the glass and the paint in the first half, out rebounding the Chippewas 18-13 and outscoring CMU in the paint 24-8.
Out of the half, the Chippewas got hot, starting the third quarter on a 16-2 run cutting their deficit down to six points. Junior center Rochelle Norris led the comeback with nine points in the quarter. However, the Bobcats pulled away as they ended the last two minutes of the quarter on an 8-0 run to take a 75-62 lead over the Chippewas.
CMU was unable to make a run in the fourth quarter as the Bobcats won at home against the Chippewas 83-75.
CMU finished the game with 14 turnovers. The Bobcats capitalized on CMU's mistakes all game scoring 26 points in the game off of the Chippewas turnovers.
"Yeah, those turnovers were live ball turnovers and those are like pick-sixes in football," head coach Heather Oesterle said. "If you have turnovers against a team like that, I mean they can go down and just score in bunches so the 14 turnovers is an awful amount of turnovers, where you know they picked it off and went down and scored a layup like those are bad, really bad turnovers."
Utberg led the Chippewas in scoring finishing the game with 19 points. On the inside, Norris scored 13 points while grabbing nine rebounds.
Down on the other end Ohio was led by Felder and McClure who combined for 57 points. Felder finished with 29 points as McClure had 28 points.
The Chippewas look to bounce back on Wednesday when they travel back home to host Bowling Green at 7 p.m. in McGuirk Arena.
