CMU women's basketball defeats Akron, picks up fifth conference win
Central Michigan sophomore guard Madi Morson goes up for a layup in McGuirk Arena, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (CMLife | Alivia Cranick)
Despite only a six-point lead going into halftime, the Central Michigan Women’s basketball squad was not interested in letting Akron gain its first conference win on Wednesday night.
CMU women’s basketball moves to 11-6 overall and 5-2 in the Mid-American Conference after their 74-53 win over Akron (3-16, 0-7).
“Everybody brought something [to this game], and we had really good bench scoring,” head coach Kristin Haynie said.
In fact, 35 of CMU’s 74 points were off the bench, highlighting the group effort in Wednesday’s matchup.
Good ball movement on the offensive end for the Chippewas ended up securing the win in the second half, although this didn’t come as easily as Haynie had envisioned.
“The first half, we only had five assists, and we’ve been getting 17 assists a game. We weren’t playing together as much as we have been,” Haynie said. “In the second half, it was much better seeing them play better together, finding the open hand and the hot hand.”
Eventually, CMU gained momentum and began capitalizing on Akron’s mistakes.
After two of their key players fouled out in the third quarter, the Zips struggled to hang on and allowed the Chippewas to take control of the game.
“They have a good inside-outside game; they have shooters that can shoot. But I thought our post players did a really good job of guarding [Ni’Rah] Clark on the block,” Haynie said.
Fortunately for the Chippewas, Akron didn’t have such luck shooting tonight and ended up going 1-20 from the arc.
Sophomore guard Madi Morson was a weapon for the Chippewas, picking up her eighth 20-plus point game of the season. She ended the night with 23 points.
Following in scoring for the Chippewas was Senior forward Demetria Prewitt, who charted 12 points. She was also able to pick up five rebounds.
Senior forward Nekhu Mitchell made an impressive return on Wednesday as well.
“Nekhu was out last game, and for her to come in and give us 11 points and eight rebounds off the bench was huge,” Haynie said.
Central Michigan also controlled the glass, outrebounding the Zips by 17.
This was largely thanks to Senior guard Taylor Anderson and fifth-year forward Zareia Chevre, who added 11 and 10 boards, respectively.
The Chippewas are back to work after this win, because in just three short days, they’ll be taking on in-state rivals Western Michigan.
“We want to win the state of Michigan,” Haynie said. “If we play Chippewa basketball, if we play together, then good things will happen to us.”
CMU will take on the Western Michigan Broncos in Kalamazoo this Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
