Chippewa 'Gamers' Open With Toledo

CLEVELAND – Heather Oesterle is a little greedy. So is her team. And that's all to the good. It's more than OK – in fact, it's encouraged -- for a basketball program to be that way in March.

Oesterle and her CMU women's basketball team are set to open play in the Mid-American Conference Tournament on Wednesday (noon) against Toledo at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. The winner advances to Friday's semifinals. The title game is Saturday (11 a.m.).

The Chippewas are the tournament's top seed after wrapping up their fourth-consecutive league regular-season title two weeks ago.

CMU has lost two of three since, with both losses coming on the road, the first at Ball State, the second at Toledo. Those two stops are among the most-difficult places to play in the MAC. The Chippewas closed it out with a 10-point field-good win at home on Saturday over Eastern Michigan.

They outscored the Eagles 49-28 in the second half to win going away in a game that was one-part celebration for the team's seniors and another part a send-off to the MAC Tournament. The Chippewas trailed by 14, 41-27, at halftime and then Micaela Kelly drilled a 3-pointer 11 seconds into the third quarter.

"When Twin hit that 3 in the third quarter, I was like, we're going to be alright," said Oesterle, referring to her star player by her universally known nickname. "Everybody feeds off Twin. When she's rolling, we're rolling."

Kelly, who on Tuesday was named the MAC Player of the Year, scored 21 points against Eastern.

"I thought the second half of that Eastern game gave us really good momentum going into this week," Oesterle said. "We had been struggling to score against Ball State and Toledo and I thought once our offense got going, we'd be just fine."

Kelly made it a CMU 3-peat with her league player of the year honor, following Chippewa legends Tinara Moore (2018) and Reyna Frost (2019). The coach of the year honor is also a CMU 3-peat as Oesterle captured the award in her first season in charge of the program. Her mentor, Sue Guevara, earned the honor in each of the past two seasons.

In addition, CMU senior Gabrielle Bird was named the league's sixth player of the year; Kelly was named to the all-conference first team and its all-defensive team; freshman guard Molly Davis was named to the second team and to the all-freshman squad; junior forward Kyra Bussell was named to the third team.

While the Chippewas, who carry and RPI of 19 – far and away the best among MAC teams – and are vying for a third-consecutive NCAA Tournament berth, are the team to beat in Cleveland, the tournament is, in essence, a brand-new season.

Toledo defeated the Chippewas a week ago, 76-67. CMU won the first meeting with the Rockets, 73-66, in late January in Mount Pleasant.

March basketball on a neutral court is a different animal.

"I think we have gamers that are really, really competitive," Oesterle said. "Our backcourt (Kelly and Davis), I'll put them against anybody. We have some experience in Cleveland and I think that'll help us down the line."

If the Chippewas win on Wednesday, they will play a semifinal game on Friday, March 13 (11 a.m.) against either No. 4-seed Ohio or fifth-seeded Western Michigan. The title game is set for Saturday, March 14 (11 a.m.).

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Players Mentioned

Gabrielle Bird

Kyra Bussell

Molly Davis

Reyna Frost

Micaela Kelly

Central Michigan University Athletics