Four days after the heartbreaking loss to Ball State, the Eastern Michigan women’s basketball team returned to the George Gervin GameAbove Center on Wednesday, Feb. 19, hoping to secure their first MAC win and keep Central Michigan ninth in the conference.
The Chippewas were also coming off a loss, as they had been defeated in a road matchup with Bowling Green. With a win, the Chippewas could take sole control of eighth place in the MAC (Mid-American Conference) and keep Eastern from registering their first league win.
Central won the tip, and Chippewa's point guard, Jessenia Lawson, took it the distance for the immediate layup, 15 seconds into the game. The seasoned guards of Central Michigan would prove challenging to stop throughout the game as they largely controlled the pace.
The Eagles received their scoring from a variety of different sources as four different Eagles tallied points in the first quarter. Olivia Smith (Fort Wayne, Indiana/South Side) got the Eagles on the board with a layup.
At the same time, Jada Williams (Williamstown, New Jersey/Gloucester Catholic/St. Peter's), Chelsea Bishop (Grand Blanc, Michigan/Grand Blanc), and Brooklyn Thrash (Wayne, Ohio/Elmwood/Canisius) each contributed to the score in the first quarter. The Eagles struggled to find any rhythm shooting the ball and fell behind quickly as they were down 15 at the end of the first quarter with a score of 25-10.
The second quarter provided much more action than the first as turnovers, steals, and transition buckets drove the score upward. Kyndal Lewis (Belton, Missouri/Belton)made her presence known, scoring five of her 15 points in the second quarter with a layup and a three-pointer. However, offensive miscues and turnovers plagued the Eagles, as they had seven turnovers in the second quarter alone.
Eastern was much more effective in the second as they put points on the board while slowing down the high-speed Chippewa offense to just 13 points, but they failed to gain any offensive traction and entered halftime down 12 to a score of 38-26.
The second half started fast for the Eagle offense as Olivia Smith knocked down two free throws after being fouled. On the other hand, the Eagle defense was unsuccessful at keeping the Central Michigan offense at bay as they too scored quickly with two three-pointers and a jumper.
The second half was very offensively driven as both teams got the ball into the hoop after finding little shooting success in the first half. Turnovers persisted in the second half, but frequent scoring from both teams made them less noticeable. The Chippewas increased their lead to 17, going into the fourth with a score of 58-31.
Kyndal Lewis continued to make her presence known as she dished out assists, grabbed rebounds, and provided an offensive spark throughout the fourth quarter, even when Central Michigan had the game in hand. The high-paced Central Michigan offense had lost its bursts of speed as both teams looked tired and unable to get down the court at the same pace that they had been moving at for the first three-quarters of the game.
The fourth quarter was the best scoring quarter of the night for the Eagles as they added 21 more points to their total score to end the night with 62 points altogether. Unfortunately, the Chippewas refused to stop scoring, and they added another 16 to their total, making the final score 74-62. In a game where the Eagles found themselves down 20 multiple times, they fought back and didn’t quit playing until the final buzzer.
To end the night, Kyndal Lewis hit a layup with 15 seconds left. She scored a career- and team-high 15 points, grabbed three rebounds, and assisted on two shots. Chelsea Bishop scored a career-high 11 points and added two steals, two rebounds, and an assist to her stat line.
Eastern hits the road this weekend as the Eagles will venture to DeKalb, Illinois, to face Northern Illinois University inside the Convocation Center for an EMU at NIU doubleheader. The women's game between the Eagles and Huskies is set to tip at 1 p.m. CT/2 p.m. ET, with the men's game to follow at approximately 3:30 p.m. CT/4:30 p.m. ET. Along with the games being streamed live on ESPN+, fans can tune into WEMU (89.1 FM) and the Varsity Network for both games with Tom Helmer on the call.
