No. 10 Kentucky to visit CMU Saturday


womensbball
Senior guard Crystal Bradford moves the ball down the court during the Chippewas

Following a sluggish performance in the season opener, Central Michigan University’s women’s basketball team puts its home winning streak on the line against one of the nation’s most prestigious programs Saturday.

The Chippewas will host the University of Kentucky, which enters the highly-anticipated matchup ranked No. 10 in the country.

“They’re a good team,”said senior guard Crystal Bradford. “They are athletic. But we’re prepared to give our best no matter who we’re playing.”

The women come into the contest with a 12-game regular season home winning streak, and expect fans to have a huge impact on the flow of the game.

“Playing at home is an advantage,” said sophomore forward Jewel Cotton. “We need that sixth player, and that’s definitely the fans. They keep us dialed in when we get discouraged. When we make a mistake, the fans always keep us uplifted.”

Given UK’s status as one of the elite teams in the nation, Bradford said the Chippewas are embracing the role of the “Cinderella” team.

“I think we’re always underdogs,” Bradford said. “Even in the MAC we’re underdogs. Even though we were picked to finish number one (in the MAC), I still feel like we’re the underdog. We’re just going to go out there and have fun. There’s no pressure on us.”

UK is 3-0 this season including a 74-64 win over No. 8 Baylor University on Monday.

Five Wildcat players are averaging double figures in scoring.

The team is led by reigning SouthEastern Conference 6th Player of the Year, redshirt junior Jennifer O’Neill, who is averaging a team-high 18.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per game.

As a team, the Wildcats average 92 points per game this season. CMU head coach Sue Guevara said help defense will be imperative to winning on Saturday.

“There’s a reason they’re in the Top 25,” Guevara said. “They are fast and aggressive. They just get after you.”

The Chippewas were dismantled 96-74 in last year’s matchup against the Wildcats. In that game, CMU shot 40 percent from the field and had 28 turnovers.

Bradford said she knows ball control will be crucial in order to stay with the Wildcats, who are forcing 26.3 turnovers per game.

“It’s imperative,” Bradford said. “It’s in our guard play. We are going to help our guards, but we just have to take better care of the basketball.”

Kentucky has owned the glass against its opponents thus far, outrebounding the opposition by 12 boards per game.

Cotton said controlling the boards against the Wildcats could help avoid some of those pesky turnovers.

“We need everyone crashing the boards so that they don’t get easy put backs or second chance points,” Cotton said. “Just because they are big bodies doesn’t mean they get to own the boards.”

Though the Chippewas say a win against a SEC school would be nice, they also understand the value of progression early in the season.

“It depends on how the win is,” Bradford said. “If we can execute and everything, and play a good basketball game, it’s going to do a lot for us."

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