CMU Women Dominate, Again

Saturday, January 12

DeKalb, Ill.

2:00 p.m. ET

Central Michigan University

12-3, 3-0MAC

Northern Illinois

9-6, 1-2MAC

Central Michigan

Northern Ill.

Photo by: Allissa Rusco

1/12/2019 4:18:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Chippewas roll past Northern Illinois, improve to 3-0 in MAC

By: Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

DeKALB, Ill. – The road trip is over. The dominance continued.

Presley Hudson scored 24 points and Reyna Frost had 20 points and a season-high 21 rebounds on Saturday as the Central Michigan women's basketball team posted an 89-66 victory over Northern Illinois in a Mid-American Conference game at the Huskies' Convocation Center.

The win lifted the Chippewas to 12-3, 3-0 MAC as the two-time defending MAC regular-season champions continued to flex their muscle early in the league schedule.

The Chippewas' three league wins have come by an average of 21.3 points and they have come over three teams – Akron, Ohio and NIU – that entered MAC play a week ago with a combined 30-7 record.

CMU handed Ohio its first loss of the season on Wednesday, and on Saturday it delivered the Huskies their first home loss. Ohio entered the week the No. 1 scoring offense in the league, while the Huskies were second. CMU held Ohio to 13-plus points below its average, and it held NIU to 17 below its average.

Both wins came on the road. At 3-0, CMU is one of two unbeaten teams in the MAC (Kent State is the other).

"I'm really proud of our kids to stay focused like they have," CMU coach Sue Guevara said. "Five days on the road, we've had study table every single day. They're in the books and then when that two hours is done, they're digesting the scouting report and executing in the games."

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Chippewas took the same route that they did in their previous two MAC victories: They seized the lead early in the second quarter and then slowly pulled away.

CMU's lead reached double digits, 35-23, with just under seven minutes to play in the second quarter on a Kyra Bussell 3-pointer. The lead was 12, 47-35, at halftime, and then the Chippewas hit the gas, opening the second half with a 10-2 run to bump their lead to 20, 57-37, with six minutes to play in the third.

CMU led by as many as 26 points in the fourth quarter.

LEADERS
Jahari Smith, a freshman from Bolingbrook, Ill., scored 18 points and Micaela Kelly added 16 for the Chippewas.

Smith's point total was one shy of her career high.

Hudson made four of her five 3-point attempts and finished with seven assists, while Frost continued to make her case as one of the MAC's very best. The league's career leading rebounder finished with 21 boards, two shy of her career high in posting her ninth consecutive double-double and her 13^th of the season.

KEY STATS
The Chippewas dominated the boards, finishing with a 42-30 rebounding advantage, and scored 48 points in the paint, a credit to the work inside of Frost, Smith and Bussell.

"When you have Frostie and Jahari, the way that she finished today, and then Bus, those three were able to get in the paint, they were able to finish for us," Guevara said. "We were able to drive and we made layups -- high-percentage shots and we were able to put them down."

OFFENSIVE SURGE
The Chippewas have scored an average of 90.2 points in their last four games. They have made 51.7 percent of their field goal attempts in those contests.

DEFENSE
CMU held NIU's leading scorer, Mikayla Voigt, to 10 points. Myia Starks scored 17 points to lead the Huskies (9-6, 1-2).

NEXT
The Chippewas return to McGuirk Arena on Wednesday, Jan. 16, to entertain Miami (Ohio). The RedHawks are 10-4, 1-2 after a 66-59 loss to Buffalo on Saturday.