Chippewa Women Hit Stretch Run At Ball State

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – The Central Michigan women's basketball team will look to snap a two-game losing streak and gain some momentum heading into the postseason on Wednesday (7 p.m.) when the Chippewas go to Ball State for a Mid-American Conference game at the Cardinals' Worthen Arena.

The Chippewas are 13-8 and are in third place in the MAC at 11-6 after back-to-back losses to first-place Bowling Green and to Toledo. The Chippewas' game at Eastern Michigan on Saturday was cancelled.

CMU has clinched a spot in the league tournament in Cleveland. Bowling Green has wrapped the regular-season MAC championship and the No. 1 seed in the tournament. Where the Chippewas will be seeded will depend on how they fare in the final week of the regular season. CMU is scheduled to close at home on Saturday (1 p.m.) against Northern Illinois.

CMU lost at home to Ball State, 69-66, on Feb. 3. The Cardinals are 13-9, 11-7 and have won four of their last five games.

Elite Company
Central Michigan senior guard Micaela Kelly became the program's second-leading scorer a week ago in the Chippewas' 72-67 loss to Toledo at McGuirk Arena. Kelly scored 21 points, giving her 2,016 for her career. She trails Presley Hudson, who scored 3,309 points from 2015-19.

Kelly, the reigning MAC Player of the Year, is just the third player in program history to have scored 2,000 points. Crystal Bradford, who played at CMU from 2011-15, is third with 2,006.

The Chippewas
CMU has long been known as one of the MAC's most-explosive offensive teams and it enters Wednesday's game averaging 76.4 points per game, good for second in the MAC. But in their last two games, both losses, the Chippewas have been held to 67 points. Their season low is 66.

Kelly and sophomore Molly Davis continue to entrench themselves as the MAC's top backcourt. Kelly is third in the conference – and 10th nationally – in scoring with 23.2 points per game; Davis ranks sixth in the league in scoring at 20.4.

Davis ranks second and Kelly is seventh in the conference in field goal percentage; Davis is making 50.2 percent of her field goal attempts, while Kelly is making 47.7 percent.

Davis (62), Kelly (56) and CMU senior Maddy Watters (51) rank first, second and third, respectively, in 3-pointers in the MAC. Watters is the second-most efficient long-range threat in the league, having made 45.5 percent of her triple tries on the season. Davis (.411) is seventh. Davis ranks third in the conference in free throw efficiency, having made 86.5 percent of her attempts from the line.

Chippewa junior Jahari Smith ranks sixth in the MAC with 7.5 rebounds per game. She grabbed a career-high 14 boards on Wednesday in CMU's loss to Toledo and is averaging 10.3 over her last three games.

Scouting
Ball State's Oshlynn Brown, a 6-foot-1 senior, ranks seventh in the MAC in scoring (19.2 points per game) and is the league's leading rebounders (11.9). She is one of three players in the league to average a double-double.

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Players Mentioned

Molly Davis

Micaela Kelly

Jahari Smith

Maddy Watters