Women lose first game in Arizona

• Tweet
• 

Luckily, tomorrow is a new day for the Central Michigan women’s basketball team.

Drake defeated CMU 90-70 Friday night in Flagstaff, Ariz., during the first round of the Hilton Garden Inn Thanksgiving Tournament.

Head coach Sue Guevara called the loss “an all-around disappointing effort” from her team.

“We played poorly in every aspect,” she said. “We missed easy layups, had too many turnovers and were out of position on defense.”

Drake (2-2) led 48-32 at the half and had control throughout the game. Senior guard Kristin Turk had a game-high 22 points on 6-of-10 shooting, while junior forward Rachael Hackbarth posted her fourth career double-double with 19 points and 12 rebounds.

Senior guard Shonda Long and freshman forward Niki DiGuilio both scored a team-high 16 points. Senior forward Kaihla Szunko had 15 points and 11 rebounds, her fourth double-double of the season.

Turnovers plagued the Chippewas as they had 19 and struggled to make layups when they got position on Bulldog defenders.

Drake shot 49.2 percent from the field compared to CMU’s 36.9 percent clip.

“I thought we got intimidated,” said Guevara. “The good news is we get to play again tomorrow.”

CMU will play Binghamton (2-2) at 4:35 p.m. Saturday in the tournament’s consolation game. Drake moves on to the championship game against host Northern Arizona (3-2).