Chippewas defeat Huskies 66-53 at Rose

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Thursday night’s 66-53 win for the CMU women’s basketball team over Northern Illinois University may not have been pretty but it was still a win.
With it, the Chippewas (9-15 overall, 6-7 Mid-American Conference) put themselves in position to host a first-round MAC Tournament game. The loss drops NIU to 5-19, 4-9 MAC.
“If we want to host a first-round game we really need to get the Toledo game,” Head Coach Fran Voll said. “The Toledo game is big anyway I like to play Toledo and I like playing MAC games.”
CMU will host Toledo at 2 p.m. on Saturday in Rose Arena.
The turning point in the game was sparked by sophomore guard Molli Munz when she hit a three-pointer with 12:51 left in the game. The three put Central up 40-36 and was quickly followed up by a lay up by senior guard Jodi Culbertson to make the score 42-36 with 11:18 to play. The Chippewas would never let the Huskies get closer than four points from that point on.
Culbertson stepped it up in her second to last regular season game at Rose Arena. Culbertson had 21 points which included going 9 for 11 from the free throw line. Culbertson also had 6 rebounds and 4 assists to go with her 21 points.
Her point total was just four points off her career high of 25 against Miami earlier this year.
“Being one of the last games here I wanted to kind of go out with a bang. This is a win that we had to have,” Culbertson said.
“I felt some responsibility, because Shelly and I wanted to come in here play real hard and get a win,”
With the game coming up Saturday with Toledo it’s not only big as far as a win for Culbertson but it also marks the end of her career at Central.
“I just hope I’m not crying the whole game,” she said. “Emotionally it’s a big game but in terms of hosting a first-round MAC game it’s huge for us. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
Woods also stepped it up in the second half as she only had four points at half-time. Woods ended up with 14 points for the game and hit a jumper with 10:21 left to play that put Central up by five and sent them on their way to a 13 point win.
For the Huskies, junior center Michelle Johnson had an outstanding game. Johnson had 20 points and led all players with 10 rebounds. However, it was Johnson’s foul trouble that seemed to be the downfall for NIU.
“She had a double-double that’s pretty huge,” Voll said.
When Johnson fouled out NIU looked to leading scorer senior guard Charbea Haller to pick up the slack. Although Haller has over 100 three-pointers in her career she shot 1 of 9 from beyond the arc and that proved to be one of the key stats of the game.
“Had they not had to get her out of there I think that could have made a huge difference in the out come of this game,” Voll said.
Another stat Voll was concerned with was Central’s free throw shooting. Central went 11 of 21 for 52 percent from the line.
“That’s not like us and it is something that we are concerned with fixing,” Voll said.
With the NIU game behind them it is now time for the Chippewas to focus on what could be the biggest game of the year Saturday with Toledo.
“This game is going to be easy for us to get up for. It is a game that we have to win with us going on the road for the last two games of the year,” Voll said.
Voll said other than MAC co-leaders Kent and Western Michigan the MAC field is a wide open one.
“If we can just hang tough we have some great tie-breakers,” Voll said.
The game with the Rockets will air on the CMU Television Network throughout northern Michigan. If Central doesn’t host a MAC first-round game this will mark the last time seniors Woods and Culbertson will play at home.
The MAC Tournament opens Monday Feb. 28 at campus sites for the first-round games. After that the remaining teams will travel to Cleveland on March 2-4 to compete for the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.