A March memory: A deeper look behind CMU's 88-80 overtime against EMU
Arms folded, a scowl on her lips that would occasionally shout words. The constant stomping of her feet to get her teams attention time and time again.
For most of the game, her look gave an expression of confusion with her arms tossed up in the air so the sleeves of her button up shirt would show out of the cuffs on her purple jacket. She would then turn away from the court and let out a sigh with "Oh, c'mon, again?"
This described the looks and sounds of Central Michigan women's basketball head coach Sue Guevara as she watched her No. 1-seeded Chippewas battle in a uncomfortably close game with No. 9 Eastern Michigan deep into the third quarter.
With a 52-48 score heading into the final frame, the Quicken Loans Arena was full of uncertainty on both ends — one team was guaranteed a spot in Cleveland and the other wasn't. The game only had 10 minutes remaining but felt like it had no clear end in site as CMU struggled to pull away.
"Fred (Castro's) kids just kept attacking and did a great job of getting to the basket," Guevara said. "I give them so much credit and they stayed in it, when (EMU's players) are juniors or seniors things could be different."
Just under three minutes into the final quarter, Hudson canned a deep triple from the right wing to give CMU a 59-54 lead. Guevara clapped her hands, paced closer to half court while wagging her finger for her team to get down the floor. She crouched down, with her thumb and index finger pressed to her cheek, attempting to find patience.
Eastern Michigan stormed back with a 7-0 run to lead the game at 61-59 with 5:03 to play capped off by a Autumn Hudson layup.
Guevara immediately called a timeout, blank faced as her team ran over.
Castro, on opposing bench, gathered his Eagles to a huddle full of emotion and high-fives.
"We were out-rebounding them and attacking them the way we wanted to attack them all game," Castro said. "We felt really good about where we were at."
The looks of the faces on the Chippewas bench showed stress and uncertainty. Freshman forward Jahari Smith sat with a towel draped over her head, rubbing her knee pads to the point where it looked like she might go through them.
The Eagles had reclaimed the lead after losing it at 65-64 with 2:35 remaining. The game would keep going back and forth.
Senior forward Reyna Frost hit a contested layup on a spin inside like she had done all game, falling to the floor but getting right back up. EMU's Danielle Minott followed with a layup of her own. The game had started to push towards the finish and with 38 seconds remaining and the Eagles boasted a 67-66 advantage.
Someone had to step up for the Chippewas to avoid the biggest upset of the MAC Tournament this season and one of the larger ones in league history.
On the ensuing possession, sophomore forward Kyra Bussell took an open triple from the top of key that only drew backboard. CMU fouled quickly as only 13 seconds remained.
EMU's Courtnie Lewis made both free throws. The Eagles had a 3-point advantage and Castro wanted nothing to do with CMU getting another 3-point look. So, he elected to foul CMU and send it to the line.
The strategy worked. For the next two possessions for both teams, they all ended with trips to the charity stripe and neither team missed a clutch free throw. The end result was still an EMU 73-70 lead with five seconds to play.
However, when the ball got in-bounded to Hudson, no one came over to foul her. Instead, she stormed down the floor and got the ball off just before the square light turned on within the backboard.
Hudson hit the largest three of her CMU career and sent the Chippewas to overtime.
Castro, meanwhile, wishes he never allowed the shot to go up.
"This game really falls on me," Castro said. "I should've continued fouling down the stretch towards the end and we didn't. I drew up a defensive play call that we wanted to execute and we didn't.
"We should've just kept it simple but we didn't and that falls on me."
Hudson, who totaled 28 points, said she didn't really think about getting fouled. Guevara said she would've drawn up a defensive play herself but told Hudson in the timeout a couple plays before she had "no doubt" about her taking the last shot of regulation.
"This is the best thing about Pres, we don't have any timeouts left and I said 'well, we gotta go full court' and she said 'coach you want to draw something up and I'll just tell them' and I said sure," Guevara said with a noticeable grin. "She got on the board and drew it up and went to work."
Riding a whirlwind of momentum cast over them into overtime, the Chippewas scored 15 points in the final five minutes of overtime to defeat the Eagles 88-80 and advance to a macthup with No. 4 Buffalo on March 15.
The first four points of the extra period were by Frost who had 28 tallies and 13 rebounds for her 28th double-double on the 2018-19 campaign. She said the continuation of EMU celebrating like it had already won fueled the Chippewas fire down the stretch and into overtime.
"We were getting ready to run that final play in our final timeout and I told Presley 'it's just like practice, we do these situations all the time,'" Frost said. "When she hit that shot, it was crazy and we knew we needed to finish the game out."
Ultimately, a win is a win. However, this one had to be earned with dramatics that aren't seen on a day-to-day basis. Now, they have to face a familiar foe from the postseason in the Bulls.
"We get the 24 hours to enjoy (this win) tomorrow and tonight they get to do the ice bath and rest," Guevara said. "Now we have to get ready for Thursday. We have to understand what we say all the time, it's one game at a time."
