Guevara wants depth in paint
A lack of depth in the paint hurt the CMU women’s basketball team in its 65-61 loss Saturday to Loyola-Chicago.
Junior forward Kaihla Szunko scored 11 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in 35 minutes on the way to her first double-double of the season. Szunko played the most of anyone on the team, but it was the five minutes she sat on the bench that had a major impact on the game.
With 4:59 remaining in the first half and Loyola-Chicago leading 20-16, Szunko picked up her second foul, forcing coach Sue Guevara to take her out of the game. Almost immediately after, the Ramblers went on a 16-4 run to extend the lead to 36-20.
“Some of her fouls, I think, were frustration fouls, and I can’t have her be frustrated,” Guevara said.
Guevara stressed her frustration about a lack of team rebounding following the game and the need to keep Szunko on the floor.
“She’s so valuable, I can’t take her out of the game,” Guevara said. “She can’t come out of the game.”
CMU was outrebounded 42-36 Saturday for the third consecutive game.
“We just need to get into the mindset where the ball is priority,” Szunko said. “Others beat us to balls and we have to have that mentality and go after the ball.”
Early fouls
While Szunko finished the game Saturday with three personal fouls, first-half foul trouble concerns Guevara.
“She’s a horse, but I guess I have to get that horse into better shape then, so she can play,” Guevara said.
Szunko averaged just less than 10 rebounds per game last season as a sophomore, and leads the team in rebounding this season, averaging 11.7 a game. She also led the team in personal fouls last season (99) and has acquired 10 thus far this season.
Five players off the bench totaled one rebound Saturday, and Guevara said she hopes the crowd at noon Wednesday in Rose Arena helps fuel the team to perform better against Georgetown.
“There’s going to be a lot of energy in the building so I hope our bench feeds off that energy, so that when they go in there, they can be productive.”
