Women's hoops follows strong showing Friday with loss Saturday in Preseason WNIT
After losing to Notre Dame 107-47 on Nov. 11 to begin the Preseason Women’s National Invitational Tournament, women's basketball head coach Sue Guevara said her team would bounce back with a "short-term memory."
Team captain Jewel Cotton appeared more than ready to bounce back Friday against Furman.
The senior forward scored a career-high 26 points and led her team to an 81-71 victory at McGuirk Arena on Friday.
“I’m just doing a lot of visualization and seeing the ball go into the basket before I shoot it,” Cotton said.“Having that confidence and not doing anything special (is important). I feel like I’m enhancing what I started last season. I feel stronger mentally and physically.”
The Chippewas held a 21-point lead early in the fourth quarter against the Paladins. They never lost the lead after the first quarter.
Missed shots, 3-pointers bury CMU against Elon
The Chippewas didn’t score a basket until four minutes into the game. They also did not hit a 3-point shot until the 6:34 minute mark in the second quarter.
The exact opposite was happening for their opponent — the Elon Phoenix.
A 3-pointer added a spark for Central Michigan's offense as they shot 13-of-25 from behind the arc. The team finished 27-of-60 from the field.
However, the Chippewas were unable to carry their momentum into Saturday's game against Elon, losing 71-57 to Elon.
Guevara called the loss "disappointing."
“It was a loss to a good Elon team,” Guevara said. “(Elon) had a nice inside and outside attack and we had trouble stopping it. We just have to get back at it and really work on our defense and establish our inside game as well as our outside shooting.”
Junior guard Cassie Breen lead the Chippewas with 21 points Saturday — 11 coming from the free-throw strike. Cotton contributed 16 points and eight rebounds.
Elon started the game on a 9-0 run and CMU could not get their 3-point game going from the start. CMU finished the first quarter 0-7 from 3-point range and finished the game 4-of-18 — 22 percent.
The Chippewas allowed a total of 20 points off of turnovers and got out-rebounded 35-22 against Elon.
Breen said she believes the team still has confidence in itself, but has things to work on if it wants to compete for a Mid-American Conference Championship in 2017.
“It's still a little high, but I think we know we need to work on some things,” she said. “We know that we have each others' back(s) at the end of the day when it counts — when conference (games) start. These games are just building up for that.
“These bumps and stumbles we face in the preseason are just the opening games that are tests before the big exam, which is the MAC Tournament.”
The Chippewas take on Oakland at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at McGuirk Arena.
