Central Michigan University
Buffalo
Chippewa Women Take Showdown
1/31/2018 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Lindsay Gerber, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
That's exactly what the Central Michigan women's basketball team did on Wednesday in a showdown of Mid-American Conference division leaders before 1,765 at McGuirk Arena.
Tinara Moore scored 24 points and hauled down 15 rebounds for her ninth double-double of the season as the West-leading Chippewas remained unbeaten in league play with an 86-79 victory over East-leading Buffalo.
The Chippewas, who are ranked sixth in the CollegeInsider Mid-Major Top-25 poll, improved to 17-3, 9-0 MAC. Midway through the league schedule, they hold a 2 ½-game lead over the second-place team, Ball State, in the West and a two-game lead in the overall standings over the Bulls (16-4, 7-2), who came into Wednesday's game riding a five-game win streak.
"This was a tough game for us and I think winning this game really helped us gain even more confidence because we can beat any team in this conference," Moore said.
All five Chippewa starters scored in double figures. Presley Hudson scored 22 points, Reyna Frost posted her 10th double-double of the season with 10 points and 12 rebounds, and Cassie Breen and Micaela Kelly added 15 and 12 points, respectively.
Kelly finished with seven assists.
It was, unquestionably, a big win. The rematch comes on Feb. 14 in Buffalo. CMU coach Sue Guevara, in her 11th year in charge of the program, continued her season-long one-at-a-time drumbeat for her team that was picked in the preseason poll to win the MAC regular-season and tournament championships.
"Anybody can beat us, because with this conference, you can throw the records out," she said. "But we were prepared for this because of our nonconference schedule. We have the confidence going in.
"For us, this is all about getting to March and fine tuning everything for March. So everything else is white noise."
The Chippewas never trailed and led by as many as 16 points in the first half. Buffalo responded and trimmed its deficit to three, 38-35, at halftime. CMU used a 15-2 third-quarter run to re-up its lead to 14, 59-45.
Buffalo again responded, inching to within six, 67-61, midway through the fourth quarter. But the Chippewas answered with a Moore bucket followed by an Aleah Swary layup to increase their advantage to 10, 71-61, with three minutes to play. The Bulls never got closer than seven points the rest of the way.
"I thought throughout the game we were able to stay composed and poised," Hudson said. "They made a couple runs. We knew that would happen, they're a good team. It was just us being able to fight back and make our runs when facing adversity as well."
The Chippewas got solid contributions off the bench from the likes of Swary and Maddy Watters when two starters, Hudson and Frost, fouled out in the fourth quarter.
CMU finished 40 percent from the field and 10-of-27 from 3-point range. The Chippewas also outrebounded the Bulls, 55-47.
Cassie Oursler led Buffalo with 22 points while Summer Hemphill recorded a team-high 10 rebounds.
Central Michigan is scheduled for two games on the road, first traveling to Eastern Michigan on Saturday (2:30 p.m.) and then heading to Ohio on Feb. 7.
