Rebounding disparity becoming problematic

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One area that has caused the women’s basketball team trouble this season is rebounding.

And it happened again Wednesday, as Central was outrebounded 52-34 in a 73-65 overtime loss against Ball State at Rose Arena.

CMU (9-7 overall, 1-2 Mid-American Conference) gets a chance to fix its rebounding woes at 7 p.m. Saturday against Toledo at Rose Arena.

“Against Toledo, we’re going to have to get in better position to get more rebounds,” said senior forward Ann Skufca. “We’re definitely going to regroup, take the positives from Ball State and execute our game plan for Toledo.”

Sophomore Diana Reindl leads Toledo (4-11, 0-3 MAC) with 10.6 points and 7.1 rebounds per game.

The Rockets also have senior preseason All-MAC West selection Danielle Bishop, who is averaging 9.7 points per game.

UT only allows 63.8 points per game to rank fifth in the MAC in scoring defense. It allows opponents to shoot 28.9 percent from behind the three-point line.

Coming off a close loss

Saturday’s game comes three days after Central could only make one field goal during overtime Tuesday.

“It was a very physical, aggressive basketball game,” said coach Eileen Kleinfelter. “I give our athletes a lot of credit for the minutes that they had to play and the intensity level we played. I think fatigue became somewhat of a factor – our youth on the bench wasn’t giving us the lift we needed.”

Skufca led the Chippewas with a career-high 24 points and collected four rebounds, three steals and two blocks. Her game-winning attempt at the end of regulation fell just short as time expired.

“Coach wanted us to go ahead and get high-percentage shots,” Skufca said. “When you get the open look, you have to take it and if doesn’t go, makes sure everyone crashes the boards. When Sharonda (Hurd) passed me the ball, I was hoping to get an open look.”

In overtime, the Cardinals (12-2, 3-0 MAC) turned up their defense and didn’t allow CMU many high-percentage scoring opportunities.

Central could not have asked for a better start to the game as it scored the first seven points and kept the Cardinals scoreless until 15:57 remaining in the first half.

CMU had its biggest lead at 15-4 with 12:19 remaining in the first half. However, Ball State rallied in the closing minutes to cut the score to 30-27 at halftime.

Ball State carried its momentum into the second half and got its first lead of the game at 36-35 at the 17:03 mark.

The second half contained seven lead changes and three ties.

Central seemed to take control when Skufca hit two free throws with 3:19 remaining to put Central ahead by four at 60-56. But Ball State scored the next four points to force overtime.

Skufca said she still thinks the disappointing loss proved her team can compete with the best teams in the conference.

“They’re a very veteran team – they have four returning starters,” Skufca said. “If we can compete with that high caliber of a team, we can compete with anyone.”

Freshman forward Britni Houghton scored 13 points, while senior Sharonda Hurd added 10.

BSU junior Lisa Rusche scored 16 points and had eight rebounds and four blocks, while junior Julie DeMouth added 15 points and 12 rebounds.

Kleinfelter was disappointed with her team’s large disparity in rebounding.

“This is the second time that we’ve been outrebounded badly and yet we were still in the game,” she said. “That’s something we need to work on. Sometimes we had people in place to get rebounds and other times we didn’t.”

sports@cm-life.com