Box Score YPSILANTI, Mich.- The Western Michigan women's basketball team fell on the road at Eastern Michigan Wednesday, 74-65, to split the season series against the Eagles.
After Toledo lost to Northern Illinois earlier in the day, Western Michigan had a huge opportunity to move ahead of the Rockets in the conference standings, but were unable to take advantage. Ball State clinched the MAC West title and No. 2 seed Wednesday with a win over Central Michigan. Ohio has won the East and overall regular-season crown.
The fight for three and four seeds and automatic bye to Cleveland got more muddled after the midweek outcomes. Akron (11-6) put itself in good position with a win over Miami. Toledo, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan and Buffalo all head into the final game of the regular season tied with a 10-7 conference records. As of Wednesday, WMU stands as the No. 7 seed, but can still work its way into a bye. The Broncos host Northern Illinois (8-9) Saturday at 2 p.m. in for the regular season finale.
Western Michigan (17-11 overall) and Eastern Michigan (17-11) got off to a slow start over the first eight minutes Wednesday before both offenses finally got into a flow. Freshman
LaTondra Brooks was the spark for WMU, coming off the bench to attack the EMU zone and total 10 points in the first half. The Broncos trailed by five, 32-27, at halftime.
WMU stayed on Eastern Michigan's heels in the second half, trailing by one midway through the period, but couldn't get over the hump. The Eagles clinched the win at the free throw line, where the team was nearly perfect through the night. EMU scored 29 of their 74 points at the stripe and only missed three free throws in the game.
“We struggled yesterday at shoot around, and I don't know that we ever stepped out of it,” said WMU head coach
Shane Clipfell. “And this was a team (Eastern Michigan) that we didn't take lightly. They are a good team and hard to beat on the road.
“I thought a bright side to take away from us was our bench play. We had some starters have some tough games, and it was great to have some kids come in and give us a chance. It takes everyone though and today we didn't have enough balance.”
Junior
Miracle Woods had 15 points, six rebounds and three blocks for the Broncos. She is two blocks shy of 100 for her career. Brooks was WMU's second leading scorer, totaling a career-high 12 points on 5-for-7 shooting. She also had five rebounds.
Marquisha Harris and
Jessica Jessing each had a team-high nine rebounds and chipped in 11 and eight points, respectively.
Cha Sweeney pumped in 30 points for Eastern Michigan, scoring 18 in the second half. Janay Morton and Brianna Puni each contributed 13 points.
Saturday's final showdowns across the conference as are follows (MAC records):Eastern Michigan (10-7) at Central Michigan (7-10)
Akron (11-6) at Bowling Green (2-15)
Miami (4-13) at Ohio (15-2)
Northern Illinois (8-9) at Western Michigan (10-7)
Toledo (10-7) at Ball State (12-5)
Buffalo (10-7) at Kent State (3-14)
