With two minutes left in the first half, the Central Michigan women’s basketball team found the momentum it needed to break the game against conference rivals Eastern Michigan wide open.

Redshirt junior guard Satori Griffin used an assist from senior guard Jess Lawson to hit a 3-pointer, electrifying the home crowd in McGuirk Arena.

The Chippewas followed up the basket by Griffin with two more 3-pointers and a couple of free throws to end the half on an 11-0 run, taking a 19-point lead into the locker room. Central Michigan outscored Eastern Michigan 30-15 in the second quarter en route to a close 73-64 win against the conference rival Eagles.

“ We started the game out really well,” head coach Kristin Haynie said. “Fifty-one points in the first half is amazing… We came in and knocked down shots and shot the ball really well, and then we just lost focus in the third quarter, defensively for sure… We tell them that they got to grow up a little bit and we got to lock in and keep our focus for 40 minutes.”

The energy was high for both teams as the players took the court to start the game. Both squads got early buckets to fall to start what ended up being a fast-paced first quarter focused on the offenses.

Lawson started the game off hot, hitting her first two jumpers of the game and assisting on another one as the Chippewas took an early 7-2 lead. Eastern Michigan battled back to tie it with about 6:30 left in the first quarter.

The Eagles began their success from the three-point mark early, going 3-5 from behind the arc.

With 3:26 left in the first quarter, sophomore guard Mayla Ham hit a 3-pointer from behind the arc to begin an 11-4 Chippewa run to end the first quarter.

Both teams were aggressive from the three-point line in the opening frame, going a combined 6-14 from deep.

Lawson continued in the second where she left off in the first, making another basket to put the Chippewas up 23-17 to open the second. Eastern Michigan’s offense came to a standstill to start the quarter as it could not hit a shot for the first three minutes of the period.

As the first half neared its end, the Chippewas offense exploded with an 11-0 electrifying run and a 19-point lead heading into halftime.

"You know, for the bench to step in, Griffin making two (3-pointers) and Smith making one, Jada (Mosley), off the bench, making four, and then Mayla Ham making one," Haynie said. "I mean, if we can… be consistent like that, we're going to be hard to guard every night. So, the bench came in; they were ready to go. You know, that's what we want them to do.”

Coming out of the break and looking to get back in the game, the Eagles made a statement early as graduate Mackenzie Amalia drained a shot from deep to open the second half. Eastern Michigan followed it up with two shots from the free-throw line and a layup from below the basket to claw back seven points.

Central Michigan struggled to get its offense going to start the second half, turning the ball over four times in the first five minutes. Freshman guard Madi Morson finally knocked down two shots from the free-throw line at the 7:22 mark of the third quarter.

The Eagles continued to push on offense as Amalia hit another shot from deep to bring the deficit down to only 10 with under seven minutes to play in the third. The Chippewas, however, responded quickly with a 3-pointer of their own, as Mosley hit her fourth triple of the game.

The Eagles added three more 3-pointers to their tally as the clock for the third quarter ran down. In need of a basket, Morson hit a layup as the quarter buzzer went off to give the Chippewas a 58-52 lead.

The Eagles opened the fourth quarter with a jumper made by Amalia. With tensions running high, Eastern Michigan’s head coach was given a technical foul within the first minutes, sending the Chippewas to the foul line.

Morson converted one of the technical free throws, and then senior guard Lisa Tesson added two more after an additional Eagle’s shooting foul.

The Eagles tried to catch up with the Chippewas and even pulled within three with a little more than one minute left. However, Central Michigan found itself with the lead as the final buzzer went off.

With the win, the Chippewas have now earned their seventh victory of the season and third against Mid-American Conference opponents.

Morson led the Chippewas in points on the afternoon, tallying 16. Mosley followed up with 14 points of her own as Lawson and freshman forward Ayanna-Sarai Darrington both had 12 each.

As a team, the Chippewas shot 56.3% from behind the three-point line, their highest percentage of the season so far. Eastern Michigan shot 11-22 from behind the three-point line.

"Yeah, (the three-point shots) happened with the flow of the game,” Haynie said. “We tell (them) to shoot when they're open and they did just that. On the flip end of that, though, we lost focus. We know who the shooters are and we didn't necessarily pay attention to the game plan at some points during the game.”

The Chippewas will look to continue the momentum of a two-game win streak with them into their next matchup against Kent State at McGuirk Arena at 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

CMU women's basketball wins second straight

Central Michigan beat conference rivals in tight game

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