Women’s basketball clinches No. 4 seed in MAC Tournament with 63-56 win at EMU

Women’s basketball ended its regular-season on the road Wednesday with a 63-56 win at Eastern Michigan and punched its ticket to Mid-American Conference Tournament quarterfinals.

Four Chippewas were in double-figures scoring, helping the team to the win and the bye that will give the team a break until noon Thursday, March 14 in Cleveland.

“It’s three games in a row and one game at a time and now we play on Thursday so we get an extra days rest,” said head coach Sue Guevara. “We get another practice in and right now, it’s one and done. We got to keep going and our goal is to win all our games in March.”

It wasn’t an easy win Wednesday night, after a slow start that found CMU down six (16-10) with 10:40 to go in first half the team needed spark.

That spark came off the bench with junior forward Taylor Johnson.

Johnson scored a team-high 17 points while racking up five rebounds and three steals.

“I came in and I’m here to do what’s best for the team … so I just did what I could and let the game come to me,” Johnson said. “It wasn’t just me though … we had a good game from all, we had four girls in double-figures scoring.”

It wasn’t just Johnson, sophomore guard Crystal Bradford had 14 points, despite a low shooting percentage, senior guard Brandie Baker and junior guard Niki DiGuilio each added 11 points.

Bradford has been struggling from the field, but has dominated on the glass with 17 rebounds on the night.

“My offense has not been working as well as I would like it work but I know I have to still attack and still play hard,” Bradford said. “As far as these rebounds that actually surprised me, I didn’t know I had that many.”

The Chippewas will now have a break before they begin the MAC Tournament, No. 25 Toledo will have the top spot in the tournament with Ball State at the No. 2 seed, both teams will have a bye to the semi-finals. Akron will be the No. 3 seed and will join CMU with byes to the quarterfinals.

“We know how it feels to go far and come up short,” Bradford said.