Central Michigan University
NIU
Records Fall, Chippewas Claim West Title Share
2/21/2018 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Lindsay Gerber, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - Career highs, program records, season standards and a clincher.
It was all there on Wednesday for the Central Michigan women's basketball team as it downed Northern Illinois, 91-77, to clinch a share of the Mid-American Conference West Division title in front of 1,614 at McGuirk Arena.
Senior Tinara Moore scored a career-high 36 points, Presley Hudson dished out a program-record 13 assists and Moore notched her record 65th block of the season.
"It's awesome" to clinch a share of the MAC West, Moore said. "I love to win and we wanted a championship going out of the season, so that's good heading to the MAC Tournament."
WHERE THEY STAND
The Chippewas improved to 22-4, 14-1 MAC. Having already wrapped up a first-round MAC Tournament bye, the Chippewas turn their attention to the outright MAC West crown - a win on Saturday at Western Michigan will do it - and their second-consecutive outright overall regular-season conference championship.
The Chippewas are one game ahead of East-leading Buffalo (13-2 MAC). Wins in two of their final three regular-season games would give CMU a share of the overall crown, and victories in all three would give them the title outright.
LEADERS
Moore finished 13 of 21 from the field and 10 of 10 from the line as she topped her previous career-best 35 points, which came in a 2016 game at Akron.
Reyna Frost added 20 points and nine rebounds for CMU, and Hudson made 5 of her 8 3-point attempts en route to 17 points.
two blocks for the Chippewas while Hudson added 17 points. Moore also grabbed a team-high 12 rebounds en route to her 12th double-double of the season.
MILESTONES
Hudson held the previous assist record (12) with Brandie Baker (2010). Hudson had 12 helpers in a game last season against North Dakota State.
It was the 12th double-double of the season for Moore, who set the previous blocks mark with 64 last season. Moore's 36 points tie her for fourth with four other players for the fourth-highest scoring game in program history.
In going 10 for 10 from the line, Moore recorded the 12th perfect free throw shooting game (with at least 10 attempts) in program history.
Frost made all six of her charity tosses as the Chippewas finished 17 for 17 at the line, marking the fifth time that a CMU women's team has completed a perfect night at the charity stripe. CMU was 18 for 18 from the line in a Dec. 9, 2017 win over Indiana State.
HOW IT HAPPENED
CMU led by five, 63-58, with under a minute to play in the third quarter. Frost hit two free throws to up the lead to 65-58. CMU bumped its lead to 14, 75-61, with about eight minutes remaining. NIU never got closer than nine the rest of the way.
KEY STATS
CMU outrebounded NIU, 41-32, and shot 47.2 percent (34 of 72) from the floor. Central Michigan committed a season-low four turnovers.
NIU LEADERS
Courtney Woods scored 30 points and Kelly Smith added 25 for the Huskies (13-13, 5-10)
STREAK
It was CMU's seventh consecutive win over the Huskies, and its 17th win in its last 19 meetings with NIU.
NEXT
Central Michigan goes to Kalamazoo on Saturday (2 p.m.) to face rival Western Michigan (14-13, 7-8). The Broncos have lost three consecutive games.
COACH Sue Guevara
"You look at our team - who are you going to take away? Who is the most valuable player on our team? Who do you take away? You take (Cassie) Breen out of it, what happens? You take Moore out of it, what happens? Take Hudson ... who do you have to stop to stop Central Michigan?"
"I'm sure there's coaches that say the same thing about their teams and our league has some really talented players, but I look at our starting five and in my mind we have the strongest starting five in the MAC."
"We talk all the time about what other teams are going to take away. Are they going to take away our 3-ball or the inside game?"
.png&width=84&height=84&quality=100&type=webp)
