A 36-point effort by Tavelyn James helped the No. 5 Eastern Michigan University women’s basketball team come back from a 15-point halftime deficit and defeat No. 12 Miami (Ohio) University 82-74 in their first-round match of the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
“I was very pleased with our resiliency,” EMU coach AnnMarie Gilbert said. “We found ourselves in foul trouble and we needed to overcome some adversity. But this is a team with pieces who have been here before. They’ve won division titles, conference championships; this is not new to them.”
James’ 36 points led all scorers in the game and was sparked by three triples. Paige Redditt added a double-double for the Eagles, recording 21 points and 12 rebounds. Cassie Schrock added 14 points along with 11 assists and six rebounds. Kristin Thomas also chipped in with 14 rebounds.
“Tavelyn put the team on her back,” Gilbert said. “She got to the free-throw line. We knew we need our speed and she is our speediest kid.”
Leading the way for the RedHawks was Courtney Osborn with 17 points. Kristin Olowinski and Maggie Boyer each tallied 14 points and combined for six 3-point field goals while Olowinski recorded a double-double as she also grabbed 11 rebounds. Erica Almady added 12 points for Miami.
The RedHawks took the first shot on a triple by Boyer and took an early 11-0 lead before a free-throw by Schrock put the Eagles on the board. EMU scored five unanswered points, but Miami would respond and get their lead back up to 11, 16-5, with 14:30 left in the first half. An offensive drought on the Eagles’ side of the ball allowed the RedHawks to take a 45-30 lead to the locker room.
In the first half the Eagles connected on just eight of their 28 field goal attempts, for a 28.6 field-goal percentage and tallied 12 turnovers, only four of which were steals by Miami and turned into 18 points for the ReadHawks. Meanwhile, Miami shot 43.2 percent from the field while committing just four turnovers, three of those were steals forced by the Eagles.
When the teams came out of the break, it was a completely different story. The Eagles opened the half on a 15-1 run and a three-point play by Redditt put them within one point of the RedHawks with 16:06 remaining. Osborn quickly responded for Miami with a triple, however, EMU answered with six consecutive points.
“We had to let our kids’ nerves settle; nobody wanted any disappointments,” Gilbert said. “I didn’t want to disappoint them, they didn’t want to disappoint me, and we didn’t want to disappoint the fans.”
The lead went back and forth between the two teams for the next nine minutes, and they found themselves tied at 69 apiece with 4:54 to play.
The Eagles gained their largest lead of the game as they took a 79-72 advantage over the RedHawks with 0:34 left to play. Hannah Robertson answered with a field goal for Miami, but EMU scored the last three points of the game, all coming from free-throws as they sealed the 82-74 victory.
“We are a team with a lot of fight in us,” James said. “We didn’t give up, our team just does not give up.”
EMU finished the game 23-for-55 from the field, for 41.8 percent, and 72.7 percent from the free-throw line. The Eagles committed just four turnovers in the second half while Miami tallied 10.
“I didn’t want to lose, and I didn’t want to go down that way,” Redditt said. “We are so much better than that, so I knew I had to come alive and wake up.”
The Eagles will now prepare for their second-round matchup of the MAC Tournament which will be held on Wednesday at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, where they will take on the No. 4-seeded Kent State Golden Flashes in a 7:30 p.m. tip off.
