Women's basketball falls to Ball State, will be nine seed in MAC Tournament


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Senior guard Kirby Tamm (12) makes a drive toward the hoop against Toledo on Feb. 11, 2015 at McGuirk Arena. Tamm scored 17 points in Wednesday's loss to Ball State.

The struggles continued for Central Michigan University women’s basketball Wednesday night as the Chippewas fell to Ball State University 85-69.

CMU has lost three consecutive games and seven of its last eight, putting its record at 12-16 overall and 7-10 in the Mid-American Conference.

“There are some players that are so frustrated right now, they don’t know what to do,” said Head Coach Sue Guevara. “I have to help those players that are frustrated and talk to them about the strengths they bring to our table.”

Ball State took a 37-32 lead into halftime, but used an 11-0 run at the start of the second half to extend its lead to 48-32 putting the game out of reach for the Chippewas.

“We played them (BSU) pretty tough in the first half,” said senior guard Kerby Tamm. “The second half they started off on a pretty strong run and we didn’t really answer. That created the gap for the game and we just were never able to close it.”

The Cardinals were led by junior Nathalie Fontaine, who scored 18 of her 25 points in the second half. Sophomore Jill Morrison added 19 points, 16 of which came after intermission.

The Cardinals hit six 3-pointers in the second half, including four from Morrison, who shot 5-for-9 from long range.

“If your head is not on a swivel, you tend to lose your player,” Guevara said. “When we’re switching and you forget to switch, now we have two people on one person and you got a shooter wide-open.”

CMU started the game shooting 66.7 percent from the field and led 13-6, but finished shooting at 38.7 percent.

The Chippewas had four players score in double figures, led by junior guard Da’Jourie Turner, who finished with a team-high 19 points. Tamm added 17 points, freshman guard Cassandra Breen had 12 and senior Jas’Mine Bracey chipped in with 10.

CMU played without senior guard Crystal Bradford, who will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury.

The Chippewas face Eastern Michigan on Saturday at home in the regular season finale. Regardless of what happens Saturday, CMU will be the nine seed in the MAC Tournament and will travel to Northern Illinois for the first round Monday at 5:30 p.m.

A win at NIU would send CMU to Cleveland for the quarterfinals.

“(Saturday) is the last game in McGuirk (this,” Guevara said. “Our fans have been so loyal and so supportive through all of this. We just want to make sure we are going to give every effort we can.”

Seniors Tamm, Bracey, Bradford, Lorreal Jones and Jessica Green will be recognized on Senior Day Saturday, but Tamm and Bracey might be the only seniors healthy enough to play.

“I know Kerby and Jas’Mine are going to try and do everything they possibly can to beat Eastern Michigan because it’s senior day,” Guevara said. “Our freshmen have to understand the urgency with that. I want our freshmen to be able to get to (the MAC Tournament) to understand it.

“We go from having a goal of winning the MAC tournament, to now just trying to get to Cleveland. (The freshmen) came here to win a championship and we were all set to do that. Well, that’s a snowball’s chance in hell right now.”

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