Eight-game win streak ends as women's basketball falls at Duqesne
An eight-game winning streak came to an abrupt end on Sunday as the Central Michigan women's basketball team blew a 12-point halftime lead in the 64-61 loss at Duquesne.
CMU led the Dukes 42-29 at halftime, but was outscored 35-19 in the second half. The Chippewas shot just 7-for-24 after halftime.
"You really have to give credit to Duquesne for coming out like they did in the second half," said head coach Sue Guevara. "I just thought that we lost track of their shooters."
In the first half, CMU held a commanding lead, shooting 40.5 percent from the field while Duquesne shot only 25.8 percent. In the second half, it was the complete opposite as the Chippewas went ice cold and the Dukes hit 44.4 percent of their field goals.
Guevara expressed some frustration with the productivity of the CMU bench, who scored just three points against the Dukes.
"We need to get something out of our bench," Guevara said. "Our bench put three points out for us, and that is not going to win many games."
Senior Tinara Moore scored 12 points during the opening six minutes of the first quarter before picking up two fouls early. She would sit until the start of the second half, leaving freshman Kyra Bussel to pick up the slack.
"She (Bussel) gave us three rebounds and she was 1-3, but she was a big body that we needed for us inside," Guevara said.
Averaging just over 20 points per game, junior Presley Hudson had a slow day offensively for CMU, scoring 11 points off 3-12 shooting from the field and 2-8 from three point range.
The loss marks the end of a four-game road stretch for the Chippewas, who return home to McGuirk Arena on December 21 to take on Quinnipiac at 7 p.m.
"I think it will be really nice to get home," Guevara said. "It's a long trip it will be nice to play in front of our fans again and it's our ugly sweater game. I just don't want our play to be ugly."
