Women's basketball opens against Loyola-Chicago
The CMU women’s basketball team will open its home schedule after two consecutive road losses in Illinois to start the season.
CMU (0-2) plays Loyola-Chicago, a team that beat the Chippewas 87-82 on Dec. 18 last year, at 2 p.m. Saturday in Rose Arena.
“It is not about who we play; this is our home opener,” said coach Sue Guevara. “We want to protect our home court. Our fans are excited and we just need to clear some things up.”
The Ramblers do not have a lot of size inside like Illinois, and the Chippewas will be looking for better rebounding numbers.
“We have been stressing rebounding every game, and it does not matter who we play — we are going to stress rebounding and pursuing the ball,” Guevara said.
Loyola returns senior guard Maggie McCloskey, who scored 25 points against the Chippewas last season, hitting 9-of-14 from 3-point range.
“They beat us last year and they had one girl who lit it up against us,” Guevara said. “I thought that Kendra (Holman) was very productive and had a good game yesterday, so she will start against Loyola.”
Illinois loss
Holman scored a team-high 15 points in her first start of the season at point guard in CMU’s 77-59 loss to Illinois on Wednesday in Champaign, Ill.
The team got off to a slow start against its Big Ten foe and never recovered. It was outrebounded 49-35 against a bigger Fighting Illini team.
Guevara said the Illinois defense was a big reason why the Chippewas started the game so slowly.
“They put a lot of pressure on Shonda Long and our guards. They were very intimidating inside,” she said.
The Chippewas shot 31 percent from the field while Illinois shot 43 percent. Seniors Britni Houghton and Heidi Warczinski each had 12 points.
Turnovers and solid inside play by Illinois hurt the Chippewas, as the Illini had 25 points off turnovers and 38 points in the paint compared to CMU’s 24.
