Central Michigan University Athletics
Wednesday, February 17
Bowling Green, OH
7 P.M.
Central Michigan University
at
Bowling Green
Second-year CMU coach Heather Oesterle has the Chippewas right in the thick of the Mid-American Conference race.
Photo by: Jack Reeber '23,M'25 - @jackreeber.raw
Chippewas Go To Bowling Green For Showdown
2/16/2021 3:41:00 PM | Women's Basketball
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Five regular-season games remain for the Central Michigan women's basketball team, and the Chippewas are exactly where one and all figured they would be at the start of the season: Right in the thick of it.
A showdown looms Wednesday (7 p.m.) when the Chippewas go to Bowling Green for a big Mid-American Conference game with the first-place Falcons.
CMU, which has won three-consecutive games, is 13-6, 11-4 MAC; Bowling Green, 15-4 overall, tops the league at 11-3. Between the Chippewas and Falcons in the league standings sits Northern Illinois, 9-3 league.
Nothing has been decided with 2 ½ weeks remaining, except that any number of teams still have a shot at claiming the conference crown. The top eight in the final standings advance to the league tournament in Cleveland.
Making Sense of It
With four league losses, the Chippewas sit one game behind three teams – Bowling Green, NIU and Kent State – in the loss column, normally a very good gauge when hashing out championship possibilities and standings.
But in the upside-down 2020-21 season, the number of conference games played by each team, when it's all said and done, could vary widely. CMU and Ohio are the only teams that have played a league-high 15 games to this point, while other teams, such as Kent State (9), Eastern Michigan (10) and Buffalo (12) have played significantly fewer.
Based on league win percentage, Bowling Green (.786) is first, followed by NIU (.750), and the Chippewas (.733). If the league tournament were to begin today, the Falcons, Huskies and Chippewas would be the top-three seeds, respectively. There are three teams a notch below CMU at .667: Ohio, Buffalo and Kent State.
The Chippewas have four games remaining after Wednesday: home vs. Toledo, at Eastern Michigan, at Ball State, and home vs. Northern Illinois. The CMU-NIU game on Saturday, March 6, could very well decide the MAC regular-season champion and the No. 1 seed for the tournament.
Standing on the Cusp of History
Central Michigan senior guard Micaela Kelly is poised to join an exclusive group in program history.
The senior, who earlier this week was named the MAC Player of the Week, enters Wednesday's game with 1,979 career points. With 21 points, she will become just the third player in CMU history to score 2,000. Presley Hudson, who played at CMU from 2015-18, is No. 1 with 2,309, while Crystal Bradford (2011-15) has 2,006.
Kelly is averaging 23.7 points per game, ranking third in the MAC and eighth nationally. She is the reigning MAC Player of the Year and would need to average 22.3 points per game on the season in order to break Reyna Frost's program record (22.2 ppg in 2018-19 season) for best single-season scoring average.
Fourth-Quarter Flurry
The Chippewas are coming off a very good week during which they won at Miami (Ohio), 81-78, and then downed Kent State at home, 84-71.
CMU trailed by 15 points late in the third quarter at Miami and then outscored the RedHawks, 34-18, in the final stanza. On Saturday against Kent State, the Chippewas led by as many as 21 points in the first half before the Golden Flashes surged in the second, tying it at 71-71 with just over six minutes to play. The Chippewas scored the game's final 13 points to pull away.
Trends
Since an uncharacteristic three-game losing streak, the Chippewas have won six of their last seven games. Two of those six wins have come by double-digit margins, the 13-point victory on Saturday over Kent State, and a 23-point win over Akron on Jan. 23.
The average margin of victory in the other four is 4.75 points and the Chippewas' lone loss in that stretch came by three points.
Strong Smith
CMU junior forward Jahari Smith had 11 points and 11 rebounds in the win over Kent State. It was her second career double-double. Her first (11 points, 12 rebounds) came in a 93-84 loss to Ohio on Jan. 16.
Matchup
Wednesday's game pits the two most-prolific free throw shooting teams in the MAC. The Chippewas make their charity tosses at a league-best .777 rate, while the Falcons are second at .756.
Scouting
Bowling Green is in the midst of a renaissance and has already clinched its first winning season since 2013-14, when it last won a MAC championship.
The Falcons rank second in the MAC defensively, holding opponents to 62.8 points per game. They lead the league in steals per game (11.42) and their margin of victory is a conference-leading 10.7 points.
Bowling Green is limiting its opponents to a .384 field goal shooting percent, ranking third in the MAC in that category. Falcon foes are making just 28.8 percent of their 3-point field goal attempts. Bowling Green is second in the league in that category.
Freshman guard Lexi Fleming is Bowling Green's top scorer (17.5 points per game). She is 10th in the MAC in scoring.
A showdown looms Wednesday (7 p.m.) when the Chippewas go to Bowling Green for a big Mid-American Conference game with the first-place Falcons.
CMU, which has won three-consecutive games, is 13-6, 11-4 MAC; Bowling Green, 15-4 overall, tops the league at 11-3. Between the Chippewas and Falcons in the league standings sits Northern Illinois, 9-3 league.
Nothing has been decided with 2 ½ weeks remaining, except that any number of teams still have a shot at claiming the conference crown. The top eight in the final standings advance to the league tournament in Cleveland.
Making Sense of It
With four league losses, the Chippewas sit one game behind three teams – Bowling Green, NIU and Kent State – in the loss column, normally a very good gauge when hashing out championship possibilities and standings.
But in the upside-down 2020-21 season, the number of conference games played by each team, when it's all said and done, could vary widely. CMU and Ohio are the only teams that have played a league-high 15 games to this point, while other teams, such as Kent State (9), Eastern Michigan (10) and Buffalo (12) have played significantly fewer.
Based on league win percentage, Bowling Green (.786) is first, followed by NIU (.750), and the Chippewas (.733). If the league tournament were to begin today, the Falcons, Huskies and Chippewas would be the top-three seeds, respectively. There are three teams a notch below CMU at .667: Ohio, Buffalo and Kent State.
The Chippewas have four games remaining after Wednesday: home vs. Toledo, at Eastern Michigan, at Ball State, and home vs. Northern Illinois. The CMU-NIU game on Saturday, March 6, could very well decide the MAC regular-season champion and the No. 1 seed for the tournament.
Standing on the Cusp of History
Central Michigan senior guard Micaela Kelly is poised to join an exclusive group in program history.
The senior, who earlier this week was named the MAC Player of the Week, enters Wednesday's game with 1,979 career points. With 21 points, she will become just the third player in CMU history to score 2,000. Presley Hudson, who played at CMU from 2015-18, is No. 1 with 2,309, while Crystal Bradford (2011-15) has 2,006.
Kelly is averaging 23.7 points per game, ranking third in the MAC and eighth nationally. She is the reigning MAC Player of the Year and would need to average 22.3 points per game on the season in order to break Reyna Frost's program record (22.2 ppg in 2018-19 season) for best single-season scoring average.
Fourth-Quarter Flurry
The Chippewas are coming off a very good week during which they won at Miami (Ohio), 81-78, and then downed Kent State at home, 84-71.
CMU trailed by 15 points late in the third quarter at Miami and then outscored the RedHawks, 34-18, in the final stanza. On Saturday against Kent State, the Chippewas led by as many as 21 points in the first half before the Golden Flashes surged in the second, tying it at 71-71 with just over six minutes to play. The Chippewas scored the game's final 13 points to pull away.
Trends
Since an uncharacteristic three-game losing streak, the Chippewas have won six of their last seven games. Two of those six wins have come by double-digit margins, the 13-point victory on Saturday over Kent State, and a 23-point win over Akron on Jan. 23.
The average margin of victory in the other four is 4.75 points and the Chippewas' lone loss in that stretch came by three points.
Strong Smith
CMU junior forward Jahari Smith had 11 points and 11 rebounds in the win over Kent State. It was her second career double-double. Her first (11 points, 12 rebounds) came in a 93-84 loss to Ohio on Jan. 16.
Matchup
Wednesday's game pits the two most-prolific free throw shooting teams in the MAC. The Chippewas make their charity tosses at a league-best .777 rate, while the Falcons are second at .756.
Scouting
Bowling Green is in the midst of a renaissance and has already clinched its first winning season since 2013-14, when it last won a MAC championship.
The Falcons rank second in the MAC defensively, holding opponents to 62.8 points per game. They lead the league in steals per game (11.42) and their margin of victory is a conference-leading 10.7 points.
Bowling Green is limiting its opponents to a .384 field goal shooting percent, ranking third in the MAC in that category. Falcon foes are making just 28.8 percent of their 3-point field goal attempts. Bowling Green is second in the league in that category.
Freshman guard Lexi Fleming is Bowling Green's top scorer (17.5 points per game). She is 10th in the MAC in scoring.
Players Mentioned
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