Turnovers prove costly as CMU women’s basketball falls to Bowling Green
After Bowling Green outscored Central Michigan basketball, 28-16 in the first quarter, the Chippewas were unable to recover as it fell to the Falcons, 80-72 on Wednesday.
The Chippewas move to 6-20 overall and 4-11 in conference play while Bowling Green stays at the top of the Mid-American Conference with a 24-3 overall and 13-2 conference record.
“We’re playing pretty well,” head coach Heather Oesterle said. “We just got to put four quarters together, and we can’t allow people to score that many points off turnovers.”
Freshman guard Bridget Utberg led the Chippewas in scoring with 19 points, going 4-for-4 from beyond the three-point line.
The Falcons jumped out to a 12-2 lead after starting with a perfect 5-for-5 from the field to begin the first quarter. Bowling Green continued its momentum throughout the quarter, going 12-of-16 (75%) from the floor and producing 28 points in the quarter compared to CMU’s 16 to go into the second with the double-digit lead.
The Chippewas were hurt by seven turnovers in the first quarter, allowing the Falcons 10 points off turnovers. CMU ended the game with 24 turnovers leading to 28 points on the other end for Bowling Green.
“We can’t give people points off turnovers,” Oesterle said. “... They pressed for 40 minutes, that is kinda their thing … When we broke it, we had good looks, but you gotta be able to break that press … Our point guards gotta want to get the ball and they gotta want to get us composed, and, you know, I thought we were a little frazzled in the beginning.”
CMU got out to a better start to the second quarter with a three-pointer from sophomore guard Karrington Gordon that started a 7-3 run to cut the deficit to single digits, 31-23. With under two minutes to go in the quarter, the Chippewas found momentum following a block from Gordon which translated into a three-pointer on the other end from graduate student Mikala Hall. Five-straight points from Hall put CMU within eight, 40-32. However a last second bucket from the Falcons gave them the 44-34 lead going into halftime.
Gordon came off the bench and produced 13 points and seven rebounds for the Chippewas.
It was a different story in the second quarter for the Chippewas compared to the first as they held Bowling Green to converting only seven of its 21 attempts while outscoring it 18-16.
Following a slow start from both teams in the third quarter, the Falcons went on a 8-0 run to extend its lead to 54-38. Bowling Green outscored the Chippewas 22-15 in the quarter to go up 66-49.
CMU hit back-to-back three-pointers which started a 9-3 run to put them within 15 of the Falcons in the final 10 minutes. With just under five minutes to play, the Chippewas went on an 8-0 run with five points coming from Utberg. With around 30 seconds to play Gordon hit a three-pointer to cut the deficit to single digits, however Bowling Green held on to defeat CMU.
Graduate student Jahari Smith returned back in the lineup following an injury to record her 125th game as a Chippewa.
With only three games left in the regular season, CMU is on the outside looking in as it fights for the final spot in the top eight to get into the MAC tournament.
The Chippewas look to get their first road win of the season when they travel to face off against Northern Illinois on Saturday at 2 p.m.
“We got to put it together on Saturday,” Oesterle said. “And three games left for our seniors, you know, my whole thing was get our seniors to the MAC tournament and a chance to compete for a championship again. And it’s go time.”
