CMU women's basketball wins regular season finale
The 70-61 win against Akron wraps up the regular season as the Chippewas look ahead to the MAC tournament
With time winding down in the first quarter, the Central Michigan women’s basketball team was down and looking for an answer. After taking a pass from senior forward Jess Lawson, freshman guard Jayda Mosely sank a contested triple to close the gap on the scoreboard.
On the next Chippewa possession, fellow freshman forward Riley Smith knocked down her own 3-point attempt, electrifying the crowd in McGuirk Arena, starting a 3-point barrage and a 14-0 run by Central Michigan.
After a close first quarter, Central Michigan used a dominant second quarter to take a lead they would never give up, completing their regular season with a 70-61 win against the Akron Zips.
“ I thought we played flat, sometimes in the game,” head coach Kristin Haynie said. “That's just disappointing for our last home game, going into Cleveland. I felt like we played flat and our defense wasn't as good as it should have been. We can't do that because we got to have momentum going into the (tournament) game.”
After taking a moment to celebrate Central Michigan’s lone graduating senior, both teams got down to business.
Despite an early basket from freshman guard Madi Morson, the Chippewas struggled to knock down their shots to begin the game. Akron found themselves with a 10-4 lead halfway through the first quarter as the Zips were able to knock down a couple of shots from behind the arc.
After the first quarter media timeout, the Chippewas started a run of their own, knocking down three shots in a row, capped off by a 3-pointer by Mosley, to take the lead. Akron, however, grabbed the lead back with 3:29 left in the opening quarter.
The Chippewas ended the first with back-to-back shots from deep, grabbing the momentum heading into the second.
The Chippewas continued to hit from behind the arc in the second quarter as Morson and Smith sank 3-point shots to add to the Central Michigan run.
Akron surrendered one more bucket to the Chippewas before making one of their own, ending what was a 14-0 run by Central Michigan.
The bucket by the Zips did not stop the Central Michigan momentum, however, as Tesson hit yet another 3-pointer to put the Chippewas up 31-21.
Central Michigan’s defense largely kept the Zips at bay, surrendering only 10 points in the second quarter. The Chippewas' offense, on the other hand, more than doubled Akron’s total, racking up 21 points in the period, largely due to success from behind the 3-point line. Central Michigan was on fire from deep in the first half, going 6-9 from behind the arc.
“Yeah, those players do an excellent job of getting in the gym extra,” Haynie said. “So it's no surprise that we're knocking threes down. It's good to see that they're being rewarded because they are putting the time in in the gym. So we definitely got to shoot well in Cleveland and take care of the ball.”
As time ran out in the first half, the maroon and gold held a 38-28 lead heading into the locker room.
After scoring nine in the first half, Morson scored the first five points of the half for the Chippewas.
As the third quarter progressed, the Zips began to make up ground on the Chippewas, clawing themselves within six halfway through the period of play.
Neither team could gain much ground on the other as the end of the third quarter neared. With a little more than 30 seconds left in the quarter, Morson came up big again, sinking a 3-pointer and then nailing a jump shot right before the buzzer to extend the Chippewa lead back out to 10.
Akron started the fourth quarter with a 5-0 run before the first media timeout, cutting the Chippewa lead to just five.
With 5:16 left in the game, Tesson took a pass from junior guard Taylor Anderson and knocked down a shot from deep, helping to maintain the Chippewa lead.
With 3:15 left in the game, Tesson again connected from deep, much to the delight of the home crowd.
In the end, the Zips were unable to catch the Chippewas, resulting in a 70-61 win for the home team in their regular season finale.
Tesson left her mark on her last game in McGuirk Arena, scoring 13 points and going 4-7 from the field and 3-4 from the 3-point line.
Morson led the team in scoring with 23 points. CMU’s bench had a productive afternoon, scoring 25 of the Chippewas’ 70 points.
Central Michigan will head to Cleveland for their first Mid-American Conference Tournament game since 2021. The game will be the third one played on Wednesday, March 8, and will be against the Toledo Rockets.
Central Michigan and Toledo have clashed twice previously this season, both resulting in wins for the Rockets. The Chippewas will look to break that streak and advance to the next round of the tournament.
“ Yeah, it's about us,” Haynie said. “We dictate and we don't play flat, we're pretty dangerous. So, we'll continue to work on taking care of the ball in practice and just preparing for the game plan for Toledo.”
