COLUMN: Women are the team to watch
The women’s basketball team is more exciting to watch than the men’s.
Simply put.
While some, or most, of you sports fans might disagree with me, I’m willing to bet most of you were not at the women’s game Wednesday night against Toledo.
In a battle for first place in the Mid-American Conference West Division, both teams showed up and put on a great show. But after a really slow start for CMU, the game had the looks of being a Toledo blowout.
That was until head coach Sue Guevara put freshman Taylor Johnson in the game, and from that point on everything changed. Johnson hit six 3-pointers throughout the game in what was a career-high scoring night for her as she poured in 24 points while also grabbing seven rebounds.
With just 40 seconds remaining in the game, Johnson hit what may have been the biggest shot of her young career. It was a drill which Guevara labeled “UConn,” sophomore Brandie Baker pushed the ball down the floor and found a wide open Johnson on the wing and she nailed the three, giving her team a 75-74 lead as McGuirk Arena erupted.
Baker took over the final minutes of the game to help give the Chippewas a 78-74 victory and a first place tie in the MAC.
It was literally the most exciting game I have seen in person since last season when it was, again, the women’s basketball team that beat Eastern Michigan in double overtime. Anyone who was there Wednesday night would definitely agree.
No, these women aren’t out there throwing down thunder dunks, but they don’t need to. This team loves to run and loves to shoot the 3-ball. Along with Johnson’s six 3s, senior guard Shonda Long who is the all-time leader for 3-pointers made in program history, also added a couple of long balls one of which was from at least 26 feet away and found nothing but nylon. In case you aren’t aware, that is at least a foot or two behind an NBA-range 3-pointer.
So maybe you say the women aren’t as physical as the men, and that’s not appealing to you. Well, tell that to Taylor Johnson.
Midway through the second half, CMU was bringing the ball up and Toledo’s Naama Shafir, who scored a game-high 28 points, was backpedaling in her defensive who scored a game-high 28 points, was backpedaling in her defensive stance when Johnson absolutely laid her out. She set a screen that is a rarely seen in basketball, let alone women’s basketball.
When asked about the screen after the game, Johnson replied with, “Oh, those are fun.”
Johnson uses her 5-foot 11-inch wide shouldered frame to pummel girls on the glass.
Have I convinced you about this team yet?
Well if I haven’t, maybe you should just check the team out for yourself next Wednesday at noon at McGuirk Arena against Buffalo.
This could be a special season for the women’s team and I encourage all of the CMU fans on campus to go watch this team play.
They might just surprise you every once in a while.
