Women's basketball looks to bounce back at Illinois
After back-to-back losses, the Central Michigan women’s basketball team will return to the state where it picked up its last win.
The Chippewas will travel to Champaign, Illinois on Saturday to battle the Illinois Fighting Illini. The game will be played at 3 p.m. EST at State Farm Arena.
The Fighting Illini are the only Big Ten Conference team the Chippewas will play this season. CMU is 0-2 against the Big Ten since the 2013-14 season.
“It’s just another really good opportunity against another really good team for our team to compete against,” said CMU Head Coach Sue Guevara.
The Fighting Illini have started well after a tumultuous offseason. Head Coach Matt Bollant was sued by seven former players for violating Title IX by creating racially hostile environment, although the university found no wrongdoing.
Bollant has coached his team to a 5-1 record.
“We feel like it’s just another team,” said redshirt junior forward Jewel Cotton. “We make sure we understand if we weigh teams by their skill and the name, because it is Illinois, then we’ll be looking at the game in the wrong perspective.
The Fighting Illini are averaging 76.8 points per game, while their opponents are putting up 57.7 per game. Chatrice White leads Illinois with 17.3 points and 8.7 rebounds per game.
“You never know what can happen,” said senior guard Da’Jourie Turner. “We’ve got a lot of threats just as they might have a lot of threats. We’re pretty confident no matter who we play. I feel like it will be a good game.”
CMU returns to Illinois for the first time since the Thanksgiving holiday. CMU defeated Illinois-Chicago 68-59 on Nov. 25, but fell 66-63 to Loyola-Chicago two days later.
“With UIC, that was a tough loss for us,” Guevara said. “I felt we kind of lost our composure in the fourth quarter. The momentum swung and we just couldn’t get that momentum back. We were able to get some momentum on the road against two very physical teams.”
The Chippewas fell to Duquesne 68-49 at home on Dec. 3 to fall to 4-2 overall on the season. CMU only scored six points in the third quarter and shot 29.2 percent from the field against the Dukes.
The Chippewas dropped to 49th in the nation in scoring offense (76.0 points per game).
“We could not get a basket in,” Guevara said. “The whole team was frustrated, the staff was frustrated. Getting through those moments is something that we all have to learn to do and I have to help this team do it.”
CMU has had more physical practices since the loss to Duquesne. Guevara said her practice players have been blocking more shots and being more physical with her players off the ball.
“I think we have to mentally stay focused when we’re getting the snot kicked out of us off the ball,” she said.
Turner said the key to beating Illinois on the road is to execute more efficiently on offense than what they did against Duquesne.
“We just got to come in confident, have an attack mentality and stay on the boards,” she said. “We had a lot of empty positions (against Duquesne). That will carry over to our defense.”
Guevara said her overplaying of Turner and freshman guard Presley Hudson cost her team against UIC and is looking to rest them more earlier in the game. She said sophomore guard Amani Corley, freshman guard Jaeda Robinson and senior forward Chelsea Lynn have practiced well and may receive more playing time.
Cotton said one player battling adversity is Hudson. After scoring 53 points in the first two games, the freshman has been held to 55 in the past four.
“(Hudson) is a very good player and the more she plays, the more (information) our future teams have on her,” Cotton said. “They have been really guarding her 3-ball, so she is getting it more inside. I really think that is helping us on the offensive end of the floor.”
Despite two straight losses, Guevara hopes her team can bounce back against Illinois.
“I like the resiliency of our team,” she said. “It’s a process. I would just like the process to move along a little quicker.”
