CMU women lose in NIT first round

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The Central Michigan women’s basketball team ended its season Thursday night, falling to Illinois State 72-59 at Redbird Arena in Normal, Ill.

The loss came in the first round of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament — the Chippewas’ first postseason appearance since 1984, but it didn’t last long.

“It’s a step forward; I’m just disappointed,” said CMU coach Sue Guevara during her postgame radio interview. “You can’t have this kind of poor performance in postseason play and expect to win.”

Senior Kaihla Szunko was a bright spot in the game, doing something no other Mid-American Conference player has ever done before.

Szunko became the first player in MAC history to record 1,000 rebounds, 1,000 points and 200 career steals after her second of 11 rebounds Thursday night. She is only the third active NCAA player to do so, along with the University of Connecticut’s Maya Moore and Victoria Dunlap of Texas University. Szunko will finish her CMU career with 1,292 points, 1,009 rebounds and 235 steals.

“Our seniors put us here,” Guevara said. “But they disappeared.”

ISU’s guard Jackson Shala scored a game-high 19 points. Fifth-year senior Kenyatta Shelton pulled down 14 rebounds and scored 10 points. Nine of those points came in the first half to help build the Redbirds lead.

The Chippewas only lead was a 4-3 score in the first, and it only lasted for 54 seconds.

ISU (21-10) took advantage of 23 CMU mistakes, scoring 21 points off turnovers.

“It’s difficult to score when you give it away like we did,” Guevara said. “I mean, I caught two passes tonight.”

Going into halftime, the Chippewas trailed 35-25. Sophomore guard Jalisa Olive kept CMU in the game with 10 points off the bench in the first half on 2-of-4 shooting from 3-point land.

Senior Jackson Shala scored nine of the first 13 Redbird points of the second half, helping them go up 48-32 with 13 minutes remaining. CMU never pulled within double digits from that point on.

Other Chippewas seniors playing their last game got involved. Forward Brandie Baker scored nine points with eight rebounds, while guard Shonda Long scored 13. Szunko will go down in the Chippewa record books in the top 10 for points, rebounds, steals and blocked shots in her career.

“They’ll be remembered as the class that got us to postseason play for the first time in 27 years,” Guevara said.

As the Chippewas look to the offseason, the Redbirds advance to Madison, Wis., to face the Wisconsin Badgers at 2 p.m. Sunday.