Miami 6-9 ( 2-4) at Central Michigan 3-14 (1-7). This will be our 5th game in 10 days, and another game where there is almost no practice or preparation time, plus classes are ongoing. Central has either won the MAC regular season or the MAC tournament in each of the last 4 years. They still have 2 starters and their 6th man returning from an NCAA tournament team last season, and their coaching staff remains in place.
Centrals starters
Pg Molly Davis was first team all MAC last year. She averages19ppg, 5 assists pg and 4 rebounds per game, and has 40 threes.
Sr C Jahari Smith is a 3 year starter and averages a double double with 10.6 rebounds pg and 10.6 ppg
Post players Anika Weeks average 7 points and 8 rebounds
Wing Tiana Tempe is a 3 point shooter, hitting 40 out of 131 this season.
Central has lost 6 straight games and lost by 12 at Ball State Saturday. They have had 4 days rest and are at home, which is a big advantage against us. We have lost two straight games where we fell behind by 22 and 18 in the third quarter but rallied to within 2 and 3 points in the final minutes. Again, this is a winnable game, but we need much better half court offensive execution.
9-3 Central at the 5 and under timeout. We have already missed 6 shots from within 3 feet. Central’s coach and star player are both out tonight. It may not matter as bad as our offense has looked so far.
38-28 at the half as we have a quick 5-0 run in the last 30 seconds. Peyton Scott sat out the last 9 minutes of the half with 2 fouls. Sydney Watkins and Foster-Walker made the plays and the points on the 5-0 run.
46-37 Central halfway through the third. Coach sat Scott down for another couple of minutes. Unless there is something else going on, that is inexplicable.
59-54 Central with 5 minutes to go. Jahari Smith, Central’s veteran center, has been dominating our post players all night long. Now they have switched her to guarding Scott. We had it to 2 after Garrelts hit a 3.
After cutting it to 2, Central went on a 12-0 run. Final was 70-59. WE definitely looked like a team playing our 5th game in 10 days with the last two being week night road trips where you have to drive back to campus and get up and go to class the next day.
Maddie Cluse started tonight and played a few minutes, then never came back into the game. She was sitting off the end of the bench by herself. Best guess is she got sick during the game.
Our big girls have just gotten destroyed the last 3 games. They seem to be getting worse, not better. Looks like they made a big mistake in not replacing our big girl coach when she left after school started.