Central Michigan University
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No. 5 Western Michigan
CMU Women: Too Much to Overcome
3/11/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
CLEVELAND - They battled, just as they had all season as things went from bad to worse to even worse.
The Central Michigan women's basketball team found itself in a double-digit hole 12 minutes in and could never get over the hump Wednesday in falling to Western Michigan, 81-68, in a Mid-American Conference second-round tournament game at Quicken Loans Arena.
The loss very likely ended a frustrating and injury-filled season for the Chippewas (13-18), who were an overwhelming pick in the preseason poll to win the league tournament. The Chippewas will wait and see if they receive a bid to a post-season tournament, but the possibility is remote.
"We lost some weapons, we lost some players, and you've just got to go out, step back on that floor, and fight the fight," CMU coach Sue Guevara said. "It's what you have to do. When the outcome seems inevitable, you'd better go down swinging, and I thought we went down swinging."
Marquisha Harris scored 17 points and Miracle Woods had 16 and nine rebounds as fifth-seeded Western (20-11) advanced to play fourth-seeded Buffalo (18-11) in a quarterfinal game on Thursday.
Senior Kerby Tamm scored 20 points - one shy of her career-high - in what was likely her final game as a Chippewa. Junior Da'Jourie Turner finished with 15 points and nine assists, and Lorreal Jones, also a senior, added 14 points and 12 rebounds.
Tamm hit six of her 12 three-point attempts, but the rest of the Chippewas struggled from long range, finishing a combined 1-for-13.
"You know, this kid," Guevara said, motioning to Tamm who sat to her right during the post-game press conference, "who didn't play (many minutes) her freshman year to leading the MAC in minutes played, that's a warrior. That's a true Chippewa woman right there."
Down 18 points less than a minute into the second half, the Chippewas kept hammering away and drew within seven, 59-52, on a Tamm triple with 9:33 to play. But an 8-2 Western spurt put the Broncos back up 13, 67-54, with just under six minutes to play.
The Chippewas managed to whittle their deficit to 10 points several times in the final five-plus minutes, but every time, the Broncos answered.
"In the locker room (at halftime) we got after each other a little bit," Tamm said. "We needed to come out with a little more fire and in the second half we got a little more aggressive and we were able to force some more turnovers. Lorreal did a good job of getting to the offensive boards and we were playing with reckless abandonment - nothing to lose."
"I'll tell you what, I thought our kids battled," Guevara said. "You know you have a choice, either you're going to go on spring break, or you're going to battle your butts off, and I thought we battled.
"I'm happy that we didn't fold, we didn't roll over. If you watched our team over the year -- we're playing Kentucky and we're down 20 -- and we're not going to stop fighting. We're going to keep going at it and going at it."
Woods, a 5-foot-11 junior, posed problems in the post and drew much of the Chippewas' defensive attention. That helped open up the outside for the likes of A.J. Johnson (12 points) and Jazmine Windham (nine), who combined to go 7-for-12 from beyond the arc.
Western made 50 percent (31-of-62) of its field goal attempts including 42.1 percent (8-for-19) of its triple tries in the game. The Broncos entered the contest shooting 28.8 percent from three-point range.
"Sometimes you have to pick your poison, and when you have someone like Miracle Woods (inside), you know you have to double down," Guevara said.
The Chippewas entered the season with four returning senior starters, including the 2013-14 MAC player of the year, Crystal Bradford. But three starters - Bradford, senior Jessica Green and sophomore Jewel Cotton - were lost to injury along the way.
Against Western on Wednesday, only Tamm and Jas'Mine Bracey remained in the starting lineup from the five who began the season.
"Watching your mother pass away, that's hard," Guevara said. "This has been challenging. It's been a very challenging year for not just me, but for my staff and for our kids.
"It's like, OK, you're putting a Band-Aid on something, and then all of a sudden you've got to put another Band-Aid on something, and then all of a sudden I'm pleading with my freshmen to be juniors: `Can you just be a junior, right now?' And I'm helping them to play through the mistakes and continue to keep teaching them."
The 6-foot-2 Bracey played limited minutes in the second half as Guevara employed a smaller, quicker lineup in order to press the Broncos and create turnovers.
Bracey finished with five rebounds, giving her 1,003 for her career. She scored 1,159 points in her career, maker her just the fifth player in school history to have notched 1,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds.
The Chippewas started two freshmen, guard Aleah Swary and forward Karli Herrington, on Wednesday, and two other first-year players, Amani Corley and Cassandra Breen, logged significant minutes in the game.
"The silver lining is, and I've said this all year, they've all been on the floor now," Guevara said. "They have an idea. You want to get here and you want to stay here. I think that with what we have coming back and with the kids we have coming in, I'll be able to use all five outfits I packed (for the trip).
"It's been difficult, but what're you going to do? Stop coaching, stop teaching? No. You just keep going at it.
"If you're any kind of a competitor and you're here and knowing what I saw in the locker room with how our freshmen felt, yeah, I know when we go back in the gym, I know they know what we have to do to help us stay here."
