Team goes for elusive two-game win streak

Josh Visnaw

The women’s basketball team has a chance to do something in its first two games it failed to do all of last season – win two consecutive.

After defeating Indiana State last Saturday, the team plays Howard University at 7 p.m. today and Georgetown at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Last season, CMU defeated Illinois-Chicago to begin the season, then lost to Temple 83-45.

For the weekend’s games, the Chippewas will travel to Washington, D.C., in what coach Sue Guevara called a trip for history and culture as well as basketball.

“Howard – they have a new coach and are well-coached,” Guevara said. “Georgetown – they’re in the Big East and are big and athletic.”

Howard lost its opener against Navy, while Georgetown defeated Jacksonville State. Most recently, Howard lost to America University on Wednesday, 77-50, but the Hoyas went to 2-0 with an 83-42 win against Brown.

However, Guevara said she and her team primarily are focusing on the upcoming game – Howard on Friday – before turning their attention to Georgetown.

She said Howard likes to play a lot of matchup defense instead of zone, like Indiana State, CMU’s first opponent. The Bison also like to pressure with full-court defense.

“I think that any team that looks to press, they look for the turnover and to slow the game down,” Guevara said. “But we always look to attack and get the open shot.”

She said some of the keys to the game include the team’s defense and the contribution from the bench players.

“We just need to come in and play hard and just lower the amount of (3-pointers) they get,” said junior forward Kaihla Szunko. “We need to keep our hands up and one in the face of the shooter. We had girls shoot from NBA range (last game) – it defeats the purpose of defense if they just make threes.”

In the team’s season-opening win, Central was leading by 13 at one point in the first half and let Indiana State tie it just before halftime.

Indiana State also outscored the Chippewas, 19-11, in bench points.

“We have to do a better job on defense and making teams do what we want,” she said. “We need to do a better job on the boards and getting production from the bench.”

The bench is particularly important this weekend, as CMU plays twice in two days, then comes back to Mount Pleasant for a Tuesday afternoon game against Valparaiso.

“I really look for the bench to contribute more,” Guevara said. “We’ve addressed some issues and I expect to play more people so we’re fresh for Valparaiso (on Tuesday).”

But no matter who is on the floor, CMU believes it can overcome adversity.

“We’ve worked hard in practice on finishing plays,” Szunko said. “Last game, we had (junior forward) Britni Houghton make late free throws – we recognize that we can win late.”

sports@cm-life.com