Women’s hoops comeback bid foiled by Louisiana, 54-51

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - A furious comeback effort ended in heartbreak on Saturday, as Central Michigan Women's Basketball lost to Louisiana-Lafayette 54-51 in the final moments of the game after a near buzzer-beating 3-pointer by the Ragin' Cajuns on Saturday.

Down three with just 0.2 second remaining on the clock, the Chippewas were unable to get a shot off to end the newly-minted MAC-Sun Belt Challenge.

Coach Kristin Haynie did not want to dwell on the final shot, pointing to the rest of the contest prior to the ending.

"We didn't play 30 minutes (today), we played 10 minutes," she said. "That's the frustrating part. It's usually the other way around. We usually have a quarter where we're a little flat but I don't understand where our energy was today and just our passion."

There were certainly stretches where CMU put pressure on Louisiana, as Haynie alluded to. From midway through the third quarter through the end of the game, the Chippewas outscored the Ragin' Cajuns 31-22.

But a defensive lapse as time expired ultimately sealed the deal.

"We were down 14, we didn't give up." Haynie said. "We kept fighting, so that's a positive. But at the end of the game we knew they were drawing up a play for man. In the last few possessions they kept getting downhill and scoring on us. So we went to our 2-3 (zone defense). We just have to be smarter. When someone leaves your area, you have to find somebody to guard and so we will learn from it. So next time we're in that situation, we will do what we're supposed to do."

While CMU found its groove offensively in the second half, the first half was a bit more of a struggle. The Chippewas shot 19.4% from the floor in the first 20 minutes, but still only trailed by seven going into half.

"I just didn't feel like we're being aggressive on the offensive end," Haynie said of their first half performance. "I thought we were moving the ball pretty early and then we were missing wide open layups. I think that's what got us down. And we can't. We talk about having short term memory and moving on to the next play. We can't dwell on what happened in the past. So telling them to move forward. That half was over. We have 20 more minutes to play Chippewa basketball."

Most of the second quarter saw CMU struggle to get much of anything going offensively. However, in the final stretch of the period, the Chippewas managed to put together an impressive 7-0 run and bring themselves to within five points.

CMU's offense continued to improve through the third quarter, during which it outscored Louisiana 14-11 and aggressively attacked the rim - leading to half of its points in the quarter being scored from the free throw line.

Of the Chippewas' 10 field goals made in the second half, four of them were 3-pointers. Junior guard Tiana Timpe was responsible for each of them, cashing in on one in the third quarter and three in the fourth.

"She did a good job," Haynie said of Timpe. "We kept telling her to 'don't don't stop shooting.' Keep shooting, have short term memory and not worry about the missed shot that you just took. So for her to come back from that and knock down clutch threes is a testament to her mental toughness."

Timpe ended the game with a team-high 14 points, to go along with three rebounds and assists each.

Leading the way on the glass was graduate center Rochelle Norris, who pulled down 12 rebounds. She also registered three blocks on the day.

Next up on the schedule, CMU will host Kent State on Saturday, Feb. 17. Tipoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET.

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Team Stats

Tiana Timpe

Capria Brown

Karrington Gordon

Nadège Jean