Women best Ball State in double OT
Pushed to the limit. And then they pushed back.
The Central Michigan women’s basketball dug deep – really deep – on Wednesday and found the answer, wrestling away an 87-81 thrilling double-overtime Mid-american Conference victory over Ball State at the Cardinals’ Worthen Arena.
CMU dressed just eight players and was down to five midway through the second overtime when three fouled out. But they hung tough and counterpunched time and again before finally delivering enough haymakers to end a two-game losing streak and notch a much-needed, emotional victory with the Mid-american Conference Tournament just around the corner.
The Chippewas are 14-8, 12-6 MAC, and close the regular season at home on Saturday (1 p.m.) against Northern Illinois.
“I just am really proud of our team,” CMU coach Heather Oesterle said. “Going into halftime I thought we were playing with more heart than we’ve played with in a while. We were grinding some possessions out and our defense was really focused and locked in.
“I told the team they’re coming together, and they’re coming together at the right time and they’re playing for each other. It was just a total team effort that we haven’t seen in quite a while. I think it’s the right time to start clicking right now. I’m really excited about where we’re going.”
Indeed, it was a total team ef
fort. It had to be for the Chippewas, who trailed by 10 points in the first quarter but came back to seize a 3126 halftime lead. The game featured seven ties and 12 lead changes and the Chippewas overcame an icecold 3-point shooting night. They missed 21 of their first 22 triple tries and finished just five for 29 (17.2 percent) from long range.
CMU got the customary contributions from the stars, Micaela Kelly and Molly Davis, but everybody else stepped up too.
Kelly finished with 26 points – six in the second overtime, including a layup with 2:57 to play that put CMU up for good, 78-76 – 10 rebounds and seven assists. Davis had 19 points, the final two of which came from the free throw line with 9 seconds left to ice it. Kyra Bussell added 14 points and seven rebounds and Jahari Smith had 13 points and seven boards.
The Chippewas got bigtime boosts off the bench from Kalle Martinez and Sophia Karasinski, a pair of redshirt juniors pressed into prominent roles after Smith, Anika Weekes and Bussell fouled out.
Karasinski (three points) and Martinez (eight) logged a combined 39 minutes. The diminutive-but-scrappy Martinez hit an ice-waterin-her-veins 3-pointer in the second OT to extend CMU’S lead to 81-77 with 2:12 left and Ball State never got closer than four points the rest of the way.
Karasinski drilled a triple, just her third of the season and her first since Dec. 21, with 1:02 to play in the first OT to pull CMU to within two, 74-72. Bussell followed a jumper 35 seconds later to tie it at 74 and send it to the second extra session.