KALAMAZOO, Mich.- The Western Michigan women's basketball team won its third straight, downing Mid-American Conference West division rival Eastern Michigan, 81-72, Wednesday at University Arena. The victory improved the Broncos to 8-7 in league play and 12-14 overall, surpassing last season's win mark.
Western Michigan got big nights from forwards Marquisha Harris, Miracle Woods and Michelle O'Brien, who combined for 65 of WMU's points and 33 rebounds. Harris shot 10-for-15 from the field and had a team-high 28 points, while Woods and O'Brien each totaled double-doubles. Woods racked up 22 points and tied a career-high with 13 rebounds, including seven on the offensive end. O'Brien checked out with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Harris was two boards shy of a double-double with eight.
Sophomore point guard Alex Morton was efficient running the Bronco offense, dishing out a career-high nine assists. She also had six points and four rebounds. As a team, WMU had a season-high 20 assists.
Western Michigan built an early lead, going up by 14 with 9:49 left in the first half, but had Eastern Michigan claw its way back to tie the score by halftime, 30-30.
After scoring just two points in the first half, Woods got more involved in the offense, as she and Harris were able to expose weakness in EMU's zone defense down low. Good ball movement led to easy buckets and WMU found itself scoring layups on nine of its first 10 second half makes.
The Broncos also had one of their best rebounding efforts of the season, dominating the glass 54-36. It was just the third time this year the Brown & Gold has outrebounded a MAC opponent, and each time Western Michigan has come away with a win.
“I'm impressed with our 54-36 number,” said WMU head coach Shane Clipfell. “It's been a long time we can say that about rebounding. They had 19 second-chance points which is about twice what we would like to see, but we had 16 points, and on some nights, that number is like four or six. It was a good hustle game for us.''
Western Michigan continued to shoot the ball well, hitting 47.5 percent of its shots and held the Eagles to 36.3 percent. The Broncos got to the free throw line 29 times and converted 19.
Cha Sweeney broke Eastern Michigan's freshman scoring record as she led her squad with a game-high 33 points. Natachia Watkins and Olivia Fouty both scored 12 for the Eagles.
WMU has one final home MAC game Saturday against Ball State at 2 p.m. and then travels to Central Michigan and Northern Illinois for its last two regular season matchups. Western Michigan will honor its two seniors, Rachel Adaline and Kylie McKay, prior to Saturday's tip against the Cardinals.
The Broncos are fighting for first round home-court advantage in the upcoming MAC Tournament, or with help of upsets in the remaining games around the league, the possibility of a first round bye and a direct ticket to Cleveland.
“There are so many scenarios which can play out in the final three games,'' Clipfell said. “We haven't changed the tune with the team in that all we talk about is tournament time, how much better can we get and we're making progress.”
GAME NOTES: WMU's 12-14, 8-6 MAC record is its best since going 13-19, 9-7 MAC in 2007-08 ... the Broncos have won two of the last three meetings against Eastern Michigan ... both Woods and O'Brien's double-doubles were their fifth of the season ... it was Woods' ninth career double-double and seventh for O'Brien ... WMU is 6-2 in MAC home games ... it was Harris' third-straight game with 20 or more points ... the Broncos' plus-18 rebounding margin was its second best of the season, one shy of a plus-19 effort against Detroit (11/14) ... the three-game winning streak ties a season best.
