Showdown No. 1: First-Place CMU Women Entertain Second-Place Toledo

Saturday, January 25

Mount Pleasant, MI

1:00 p.m.

Central Michigan University

Toledo

Coach Heather Oesterle has her Chippewas off to a 6-0 start in the MAC as they seek their fourth-consecutive league regular-season title.

Photo by: Benjamin Suddendorf

Showdown No. 1: First-Place CMU Women Entertain Second-Place Toledo

1/24/2020 3:41:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Central Michigan Game Notes Toledo Game Notes

Game opens Saturday doubleheader

By: Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Big one, yes; they're all big when you're fending off the challengers to remain at the top of the mountain.

The Central Michigan women's basketball team will take on Toledo on Saturday (1 p.m.) at McGuirk Arena in what shapes up to be an important Mid-American Conference game.

The Chippewas are 13-4, 6-0 MAC and lead the Rockets by 1 ½ games in the MAC West. Toledo is 9-7, 4-1.

The game is the opener of a doubleheader. The Chippewa men, who are second in the MAC West, entertain first-place Ball State at 4:30 p.m.

So Far, All Good
The Chippewas, who were picked to win the MAC West in the preseason coaches poll, have lived up to the billing as the three-time defending MAC regular-season champions.

But it has not been easy. Throw out a 27-point win over Ball State 10 days ago, and the Chippewas have won their other five MAC games by an average of six points and all have been well in doubt in the fourth quarter, with the Chippewas maintaining a slim lead or coming from behind.

"There is a confidence level at the end of games," first-year CMU coach Heather Oesterle said. "Even if we're down, it's still like, 'What do we have to do to win this game?'"

Oesterle credits the experience the Chippewas gained from a strong nonconference schedule for the mettle they display late in games. CMU played several tight games against strong opposition.

"Some of the games in the preseason prepared us for this opportunity now," Oesterle said. "We've been there and done that, and now it's paying off in the MAC.

"Today we came in (and) it's the next practice, the next practice, get better, get better, for March. That's what I keep talking to them about, everything we're doing right now is preparing us to play our best basketball. I don't think we're playing our best basketball yet. As long as we keep building, and we get certain people confidence, certain people experience, I think we will be playing our best basketball in March."

The Chippewas have outscored their last three opponents – Ball State, Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan – a combined 73-40 in the fourth quarter.

Last Time Out
The Chippewas hit four 3-pointers in the first 4:15 of the fourth quarter in taking the lead and then holding off Eastern Michigan, 89-82, in Ypsilanti.

Junior guard Micaela Kelly scored 29 points and grabbed a season-high nine rebounds to lead CMU. Gabrielle Bird added 17 points.

Thinking Historically
Wednesday's game marked the seventh time this season that Kelly, who is second in the nation in scoring at 24.2 points per game, has scored at least 29 points.

If Kelly, who enters Saturday's game with 412 points on the season, continues at her pace, she would finish the regular season with 698 points, which would rank as the second best in program history behind Reyna Frost's 733-point season in 2018-19.

Frost averaged a program-record 22.2 per game last season.

Scouting
The Rockets are coming off a 79-72 home victory over Bowling Green. They have four straight since an 84-72 loss at Western Michigan.

Toledo is holding its opponents to 64.1 points per game, which is second best in the MAC.

Just one Rocket, Nakiah Black, averages more than 10 points per game. Black, a 5-foot-10 junior guard, is at 11.5 per. Mariella Santucci, a 5-8 guard, is the Rockets' top rebounder at 6.3.

Where They Stand
The Chippewas are eighth in this week's CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll. Buffalo (13^th) and Ohio (14^th) are the other MAC teams in the poll.

The Chippewas carry an RPI of 22, which is the best among MAC teams and fourth among mid-majors. Missouri State (third, Missouri Valley), Gonzaga (10^th, West Coast) and Princeton (21^st, Ivy) are the three mid-majors that have a better RPI than CMU.

At 64, Ball State has the second-best RPI among MAC teams.

Next
The road for the Chippewas doesn't get any easier next week when they go to Buffalo on Wednesday, Jan. 29 (7 p.m.) and then return to McGuirk Arena to take on Ohio on Saturday, Feb. 1 (1 p.m.).

Buffalo is 12-5, 3-3, while Ohio is 11-6, 4-2. The Bobcats lead the MAC East; the Bulls are one game behind.

The game against the Bobcats marks the midway point of the MAC schedule.

Buffalo and CMU have established themselves over the past five years as the MAC's premiere programs, and Ohio can make a legitimate case for joining the Chippewas and Bulls among the league's best.

Going back to the 2014-15 season, the Chippewas have won four consecutive MAC West titles and three straight overall league regular-season titles along with one conference tournament crown (2018); Buffalo has captured two MAC Tournament titles and a divisional championship; and Ohio has won an overall regular-season, two division crowns and a MAC Tourney title in that span.

Kent State, with an East Division title in 2017, is the only team other than CMU, Buffalo and Ohio to have won a team championship in the MAC since 2015-16.