CMU women’s basketball loses on the road to NIU
CMU's head coach Kristin Haynie speaks to redshirt junior Capria Brown, left, and sophomore guard Taylor Anderson, right, during a time out at the women's basketball game against Ball State Wednesday, Jan. 17 in McGuirk Arena. Haynie is in her first year as head coach for Central Michigan's women's basketball. (Ella Miller | CM Life)
After an explosive second quarter, Central Michigan women’s basketball went into the locker room at halftime with a 35-28 lead against Northern Illinois.
That lead was soon to be squandered as NIU went on a 9-0 run in the third quarter to narrow the lead and change the pace of the game in its favor.
The Chippewas fought to answer the Huskies, exchanging the lead a few more times in the third quarter, but Northern Illinois ran away with it in the fourth to win 70-57.
“The second quarter was really good and we’re trying to figure out why we can’t get that every quarter,” head coach Kristin Haynie said.
After trailing early in the first quarter, CMU changed the momentum in its favor with two quick threes from junior guard Tiana Timpe and a layup from junior guard Karrington Gordon to put CMU within one with a little over five minutes to go in the half.
CMU continued to capitalize off of NIU’s mistakes with senior center Rochelle Norris getting the defensive rebound and coming back down the court and hitting a jump shot with less than two minutes left in the half widening the Chippewas lead to 31-24.
Another layup by Norris, and a missed three by sophomore guard Taylor Anderson ended the first half with CMU in the lead.
Central Michigan had a 66% field goal percentage in the second quarter.
Redshirt junior Capria Brown helped create that momentum for the Chippewas, not missing a shot off the bench in the first half and created a new career-high 20 points on the day.
After a dominant second quarter, it was a different story to open the second half. In the third quarter the Chippewas went 4-of-14 in field goals and had five turnovers compared to NIU’s two.
“We didn’t defend like we were capable of, we got out rebounded by 10, and I don’t know the last time that happened,” Haynie said.
Missed shots and five more turnovers for the Chippewas in the fourth quarter helped seal the deal for Northern Illinois.
Overall CMU had 31 points coming off the bench while NIU only had 11.
Norris recorded a double-double for the Chippewas with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
CMU moves to 2-13 overall and 1-5 in conference play.
“I just think we took a couple steps back, so just trying to figure out and we got another game tomorrow, so we got to get back tomorrow to working on us and getting better,” Haynie said.
The Chippewas will have a short turnaround as they remain on the road against Chicago State playing at 2 p.m. Sunday at Jones Convocation Center.
