Women fall to Oakland

It wasn’t Oakland’s full-court press which did in the women”s basketball team Tuesday.

It was Oakland”s zone-defense that led to a 74-70 loss in Rose Arena.

The zone confused the Chippewas as they committed 21 turnovers to the Grizzlies 13.

“We made a lot of mental mistakes,” said senior Lindy Hatfield. “We had some match up problems with their odd front zone.”

Oakland started the game with a full-court press, but CMU broke it with ease.

Junior Priscilla Poole was the main reason for Central’s efficiency against the pressure. Her ball handling and quickness made the press ineffective.

Poole started her first game at point guard in place of junior Erin Kuhl.

“We sliced right through their press,” said coach Eileen Kleinfelter. “Oakland usually presses teams for 40 minutes and they only pressed us for a few minutes.”

CMU led 48-38 with 16 minutes remaining before Oakland made its run.

During the next nine minutes OU went on a 21-4 run to take a 52-51 lead.

Central was down by as many as seven points late in the second half, but Hatfield brought the team back scoring seven points down the stretch.

The Chippewas were down 72-68 when Hatfield was fouled on the three-point attempt. She made 2-of-3 to bring Central within two, but it could never get closer.

“We were unable to make the detailed decisions at the end of the game,” Kleinfelter said. “Our coverage on shooters broke down a lot.”

Hatfield scored 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting including three three-pointers.

Junior Chasidy Myers came off the bench for the second straight game and scored 17 points.

“She has a big game against a big team,” Kleinfelter said. “She has been a big lift off the bench for us.”

Myers said she is getting used to coming off the bench after starting last season and the first two games this season.

“I am ready to play whenever needed,” Myers said. “It doesn’t matter if I start or come of the bench.”

Nicole Piggott and Anne Hafeli each scored 21 points for Oakland and Amanda Batcha scored 15.

Central plays at Indiana University this weekend in the Hampton Inn Classic. CMU will face Chicago State at 2 p.m. Saturday.