Women's basketball rolls past NIU for seventh straight win
The last time the Central Michigan women's basketball team met with Northern Illinois, the Chippewas scored a season-high 109 points in the win.
Tonight wasn't all that much different as CMU started hot and didn't look back.
The Chippewas (21-6, 13-2 Mid-American Conference) scored 72 points in the first half — which is a program record for the most points in a half in CMU women’s basketball history — to blow past the Huskies by a final score of 109-86.
The previous record was from 2014 and 1984 when CMU scored 68 points against Western Michigan and NIU.
Sophomore guard Presley Hudson led the team in scoring with 33 points on 14-for-20 shooting from the floor with four 3-pointers. She also had 11 assists to give her a double-double.
Hudson said it was mostly her teammates who helped her create space to get an open shot.
“The post was setting good screens and I was able to read the defense and use them,” Hudson said. “People were making the extra pass and I was just able to knock down my shots.”
Junior forward Tinara Moore had 24 points and 15 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season and 24th of her career. Moore also had a program-record nine blocks in the victory.
That surpassed the previous record held by Crystal Bradford and Moore herself at seven blocks.
Moore said that it wasn't anything out of the ordinary, she was just went with the way the game was being called and made plays.
“I just think they weren't calling fouls today, so that was a great thing for me personally,” she said. “Shout out to the refs.”
Head Coach Sue Guevara said Hudson was doing a great job reading all the plays set up for her.
“I think (Hudson) was coming off of screens better and I also think she did a better job of reading the on-ball screens,” Guevara said. “If you look at when they iced the screens, which means they were not going to let her use it and make her go back the other way, and I think when she did go back the other way she had some space and she took the shot.”
CMU started on fire shooting just like they did when they played the Huskies earlier this season, only this time they shot even better.
Going into the first media timeout, CMU was 10-for-11 shooting from the field and led 22-12 with 4:59 left in the first quarter.
However, that was just a sprinkle of the downpour that CMU put on. The Chippewas went on a 16-0 run to end the quarter, making the score 36-12.
In the second quarter, the Chippewas continued to control play, as they out-scored the Huskies 36-22, taking a 72-34 lead into the locker room.
The Chippewas shot 64.4 percent from the floor in the first half and 57.9 percent (11-for-19) from beyond the arc.
NIU opened the second half on a 9-2 run, but the deficit was just too much for them to overcome.
CMU led by more than 20 points for most of the second half and cruised to an easy victory despite being outscored by 15 points.
CMU shot 55.3 percent from the floor and 51.9 percent (14-for-27) from beyond the arc. NIU shot 38.9 percent from the field and 7.1 percent (1-for-14) from 3-point distance.
NIU and CMU were dead locked in rebounds with 45 a piece each. Turnovers were in favor of NIU, which only committed 10 while the Chippewas committed 14.
Two other Chippewas scored in double figures with Hudson and Moore. Junior guard Cassie Breen had 19 points on 6-for-11 shooting and went 5-for-6 from 3-point distance. Sophomore forward Reyna Frost 11 points while adding five rebounds.
Guevara said moving forward they know the games will be tough, and there is no easy place to play at in the MAC.
“Is there an easy place to play in this conference? There just is not,” Guevara said. “Ball State has a nice inside game, they've got a pretty good inside game, so I anticipate this game to be just as good as the one that was played here.”
CMU will head back on the road to take on Ball State at 2 p.m. on Saturday. With a win against the Cardinals, CMU will be just one win away from clinching a MAC West title.
