Chippewa Women Work Overtime, Will Play For MAC Title

Friday, March 12

Cleveland, Ohio

12 P.M.

Central Michigan University

17-8,13-6MAC

100

Ohio

14-8,11-6MAC

OT 1

Ohio

Central Mich.

100

Photo by: Benjamin Suddendorf

3/12/2021 4:34:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

CMU surges past Ohio in back-and-forth tournament semifinal

By: Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

CLEVELAND – They needed five more minutes. And they got 'em.

Central Michigan outscored Ohio, 15-7, in overtime on Friday to beat the Bobcats to the finish line and win a Mid-American Conference Tournament semifinal game, 100-92, at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

The second-seeded Chippewas (17-8) will face top-seed Bowling Green (20-5) on Saturday (11 a.m.) in the title game for a berth in the NCAA Tournament. It is CMU's first trip to the league-championship game since 2018, when it beat Buffalo before going on to the Sweet 16 in the Big Dance.

"Really proud of the way we fought for 45 minutes today," second-year CMU coach Heather Oesterle said. "We made the hustle plays down the stretch when we needed to. We're excited to be in the championship game tomorrow."

The Falcons defeated the Chippewas, 76-67, in Mount Pleasant three weeks ago, effectively ending CMU's dreams of a fifth-consecutive MAC regular-season championship.

"I think when you get to this point and you're playing for a championship, a lot of adrenaline kicks in," Oesterle said. "Tomorrow's going to be all about adrenaline and who wants it more for 40 minutes. We'll be ready to go."

How It Happened
It was a fast-paced up-and-down game between the Chippewas and the third-seeded Bobcats (14-8), the MAC's top two scoring teams. The game featured 13 lead changes and 10 ties, the last at 85-85 as regulation time expired.

The Chippewas scored the first eight points of the extra session, getting three-point plays from Jahari Smith and Micaela Kelly and then two free throws with Molly Davis to go up 93-85 with just over a minute to play. Ohio never got closer than seven the rest of the way.

"I thought we still had legs left at that point and it was just like, 'We need to outwork this team for 5 minutes and if we really want to get to that championship game it's going to be every single possession,'" said Oesterle, whose team won in double overtime nine days ago at Ball State. "We went into that overtime with a really good mentality … just knowing that we still had some fight in us."

The Chippewas made nine of their 10 free throw attempts over the final 1:16 of overtime. Davis was 6-for-6 during that span after going 12-for-14 from the charity stripe in CMU's 83-69 quarterfinal victory over Northern Illinois on Wednesday.

"There's never really a panic in this team and it starts with Molly Davis. I look at her and it's like, 'It's your time to step up' and she takes on any responsibility. We were just calm, cool and collected and ready to fight for five minutes."

Leaders
Davis and Kelly showed why they are among the MAC's premier players.

Davis scored 33 points; Kelly had 31. They made a combined 22 of their 38 field goal attempts including a 10-for-19 performance from 3-point range in outshining Ohio's outstanding duo of Erica Johnson and Cierra Hooks, the MAC Player of the Year.

Kelly had nine assists and six rebounds, while Davis had four assists and five boards.

Smith, a junior, was money, matching her career high with 19 points on 9-of-10 shooting and grabbing 10 rebounds for her third double-double of the season. Smith also stepped in and drew a charge on a driving Hooks with 8 seconds remaining in regulation and the game tied. It was Hooks' fifth foul.

"Jahari, she's a total team player," Oesterle said. "She'll do whatever it takes for us to win. She rebounded the ball really well down the stretch. The game plan going in was to try to get some inside looks because we thought we did have a height advantage. I thought our guards did a good job getting her the ball on the block where she could score.

"We really needed that today."

Slugging It Out
The Chippewas went into the tournament with just eight healthy players. Senior forward Kyra Bussell played just four minutes on Friday and is day-to-day, Oesterle said.

That put even more pressure on Smith in the post and on the Chippewa bench as a trio of reserves, Anika Weekes, Kalle Martinez and Sophia Karasinski, once again answered the call. Weekes had eight rebounds in 33 minutes.

When It Counts
The Chippewas committed 21 turnovers, one shy of their season high which came against the Bobcats on Jan. 16. But the Chippewas committed just three in the fourth quarter and none in overtime.