CMU women's basketball falls to 0-4 in loss to Oakland
Down nine to the Oakland Golden Grizzlies on Sunday with 1:53 left in the second quarter and struggling on offense, Central Michigan women’s basketball went on a 9-0 run to end the quarter and tie it up at 32 going into halftime.
This gave the Chippewas a much-needed spark coming out of the half as they took a 39-34 lead two minutes into the third quarter. CMU was not able to light the spark into a fire as it would go on to lose 76-65. The loss drops the Chippewas to 0-4 on the season.
“We mixed the rotation up because the last two games we started out slow, and again with different people, we still started out slow," head coach Kristin Haynie said. “That's disappointing, we dug ourselves a hole, it was a good job fighting back to take the lead, now we just gotta be able to keep it and sustain it.”
The offensive struggles continue to be an issue for Central Michigan, as it shot 33% from the field and only 20% from the three-point line.
“We gotta be able to make shots,” Haynie said. “Shooting the ball 33% overall, and 20%(from three), and then 63% from the free throw line. We can’t win games like that.”
The turnover bug also showed up once again with 22 on the day, 14 of them coming in the first half alone.
“We gotta continue to take care of the ball in practice, we had a lot of turnovers the last couple days in practice, " Haynie said. “You play how you practice, I thought our practices this week were good, we had good energy, but we’re still struggling with taking care of the ball. So, we’ve gotta be better.”
The Chippewas could not contain Oakland junior guard Maddy Skorupski as she took control of the game with 28 points and eight steals.
“Disappointed in our effort on defense,” Haynie said. “Letting number two go for 28 against us, we already knew she was their best player. We gotta have some pride and take it personal when players score on us.”
Everybody ate at the dinner table as 10 different players had a made field goal. Senior guard Jess Lawson led the pack with 14 points.
Central Michigan goes on the road next weekend to play in the Nevada Nugget Classic where it will face the Nevada Wolf Pack, the Portland Pilots and the Southern Utah Thunderbirds. The first game starts at 4 p.m on Friday. with the other two games to be played on Saturday and Sunday.
“We got to be road warriors,” Haynie said. “We’re playing really good teams and they’re back to back to back, so we gotta be able to be tough and just give effort. We play a lot of people, that's to our advantage. We just gotta continue to just keep fighting and just keep getting better and stay with the process.”
