Jumping out to a 28-8 first quarter lead, the Central Michigan women's basketball team made it 39-8 midway through the second to put the game away early.

Iona only held the lead for 14 seconds.

The Chippewas (6-1) picked up an 82-39 victory over Iona on Nov. 30 at the Hynes Center in New Rochelle, New York.

Guevara was pleased with her bench players ability to step in, give the starters a rest and carry the team.

"We are going to take that," Guevara said. "When you play your bench, you're looking for good, quality minutes when they are in there."

Senior forward Reyna Frost and freshman center Jahari Smith combined for 30 points, 16 rebounds and four assists. Each went 7-of-9 shooting in the 43-point drubbing of Iona.

Maddy Watters knocked down a 3-pointer to open the second quarter scoring, and Frost followed with a layup for a 33-8 advantage with 8:01 left. Two of the next three buckets came from the senior forward to cap CMU's 16-0 run.

"They average 44 points per game, so the goal was to keep them under," Guevara said. "We held them to eight points (after the first quarter) and did a nice job of limiting second chance points."

CMU outscored Iona 28-8 and 21-8 in the first and second quarters, respectively. The Gaels (1-5) hung with Guevara's group in the third quarter, only being outscored by six points.

Freshman Morgan Rachu paced Iona with 11 points and two rebounds, but she shot just 33.3 percent from the field, 22.2 percent from 3-point range and 50 percent from the free throw line.

At halftime, CMU converted on 21-of-30 shots from the field and 6-of-14 3-point opportunities. The most impressive stat was a 22-to-9 rebounding ratio in favor of the Chippewas.

Smith dropped in a layup on a no-look pass from senior guard Presley Hudson. Then, Frost followed with a coast-to-coast basket for a 57-22 lead with 5:30 to go in the third. A late third quarter 3-pointer from Hudson put her in double figures and helped extend CMU's edge to 69-30 heading into the fourth.

Three of CMU's starters found double-figures on the scoreboard. Frost found 15 points and 12 rebounds, Smith had 15 points, four rebounds and three assists and Hudson finished with 12 points, two rebounds and eight assists.

"Going in at halftime, they were struggling to stop us inside," Guevara said. "For Jahari, the more we can play her in tough games, the more experienced she's going to be. Hopefully, she will be like a sophomore when March comes."

Off the bench, forward Gabrielle Bird netted her first 3-pointer of the game for her first bucket from downtown this season. Just over two minutes later, Bussell poured in a turnaround jumper for a 78-32 advantage as six minutes remained.

CMU picked up a solid amount of bench minutes from Bussell (21), Bird (12), Jaeda Robinson (14), Anika Weeks (13) and Samantha Robinson (11). Bussell logged 13 points and eight rebounds on 5-of-7 shooting.

"This is a good back-to-back for her," Guevara said. "We are going to need her on Sunday against Quinnipiac. The same goes for Bird. She gave us five points, five rebounds and 12 quality minutes."

Sophomore guard Micaela Kelly scored seven points but had a 1-to-4 assist-to-turnover ratio, and Watters chipped in nine points, two rebounds and three assists.

CMU finished 34-of-54 (63 percent) from the field, 8-of-21 (38.1 percent) from the 3-point line and 6-of-11 (54.5 percent) from the free throw line. Iona was outrebounded in the loss, 41-23.

The Chippewas next play Quinnipiac at 2 p.m. on Dec. 2 at the People's United Center in Hamden, Connecticut.

"I was able to rest our starters, and that's really good because we are going to need fresh legs against Quinnipiac.

"That's going to be a totally different game."