Women’s basketball team looks for first conference win against Ball State

The CMU womens basketball team will look for its first Mid-American Conference win against Ball State on Tuesday at Rose Arena.

Despite the 0-2 start to the conference schedule, coach Sue Guevara is optimistic about her team’s schedule.

“Look, it’s only two games,” she said. “There’s still plenty of time to turn it around in conference play.”

Ball State (7-7, 2-0 MAC), coming off a pair of victories last week against conference opponents Western Michigan and Northern Illinois, are the defending West Division champions and winners of the 2009 MAC Tournament. BSU also claimed a first-round upset victory against No. 5 seed Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament.

The Cardinals are led by junior forward Emily Maggert, who is averaging 17.8 points and 11.5 rebounds per game, while senior guard Audrey McDonald and senior forward Danielle Gratton are both averaging double-digit points.

Ball State won both meetings against CMU last season.

On Jan. 14, 2009, Ball State defeated CMU 83-75 in Muncie, Ind., on 23 points from Maggert. Guard Britni Houghton led the Chippewas with 17 points while forward Kaihla Szunko grabbed 16 rebounds.

The Feb. 22, 2009, meeting at Rose Arena was another close game but still resulted in a 67-61 loss. Houghton led all Scorers with 23 points while Kiley Jarrett scored 21 for BSU.

CMU is 29-30 all time against Ball State.

Troubles in Toledo

In its last action, CMU relied heavily on junior forward Kaihla Szunko, but she did not get much help.

Szunko had a record-setting day Saturday, scoring a career-high 27 points and tying her season high in rebounds with 14.
The rest of the CMU women’s basketball team, however, did not fare the same, as CMU lost its fourth consecutive double-digit defeat, losing 74-60 to Toledo on Saturday in front of 3,394 at Savage Arena.

“We were able to get the ball inside to Kaihla today, but we just didn’t get her any help,” said coach Sue Guevara. “We’re a frustrated basketball team, but we have to keep plugging away.”

While Szunko finished the game shooting 12-of-16, the rest of the team combined to shoot 12-of-49 (24.5 percent) from the floor, including going 4-for-29 on 3-point field goals.

Preseason first-team All-MAC selection Britni Houghton was held to nine points, while junior guard Shonda Long was the only other CMU player to reach double-figures with 12 points.

Beyond that, scoring was bleak.

“I’m just going to maybe shorten our lineup and only play a couple of kids because we have to get some contribution,” Guevara said. “I might only have to (play) seven or eight kids; they better be in pretty damn good shape.”