Coming off a 73-72 loss to Northern Illinois in the closing seconds on Saturday, the women’s basketball team will look to snap a three game losing streak tonight when they take on Central Michigan in Mount Pleasant, Mich.
The current three game skid is the longest the team has gone without a win this season. Miller sees this as a pivotal game as far as standings go.
“It is a big game in the scheme of seeding going into the MAC tournament which is important,” Miller said. “If we win up there against Central [Michigan] we win the season series, so we win all tiebreakers with them and that puts us in a real good position to finish ahead of them in the standings.”
The Falcons will be looking to show their resiliency after suffering such a tough defeat against the Huskies at home.
“It’s a big game, we lost a heartbreaker to Northern [Illinois]. To be able to show that we can bounce back from it and play with a lot of character and play successfully will be a big test for us,” Miller said.
This is the second meeting of the season between the two teams. The Falcons won the first game, 63-45, on Jan. 18 in Anderson Arena. Defense was the key in that victory, and Miller knows that his team will have to step up and play solid defense against the Chippewas again.
“We did a good job taking them out of the sync of their offense and defending the arc against two very, very good shooting post players,” Miller said. “Being able to contain them not only in the post but out on the perimeter is important, but it all starts with ball pressure.”
The Chippewas are led by forward Desiree Eidson. Eidson, a native of Bowling Green, leads the team in both scoring (13.9 points per game) and rebounding (6.9 rebounds per game). They are coming off two consecutive overtime games, which they split, defeating Kent State 65-58 on Jan. 28 and losing to Marshall 53-49 on Feb.1. They come into tonight’s contest with an overall record of 8-11 and a 2-6 record in conference games. They trail the Falcons (9-9 overall, 2-5 in conference) by only half a game in the western division standings.
The Falcons have been looking for someone to emerge as a fifth scoring threat to compliment Francine Miller, Lindsay Austin, Kim Greich, and Stefanie Wenzel. Over the last two games the person who has stepped up and filled that roll has been forward Sakima Smith, who scored a season high 10 points against Western Michigan on Jan. 29, and followed that up by scoring eight points in only seven minutes of playing time against Northern Illinois on Feb.1.
“It’s great to have Sakima playing better. She is very, very talented and we certainly see flashes of her ability to really help this program,” Miller said. “It gives us an extra option if she continues to play well to go to off the bench. Her emergence over the last couple of games is a welcome sight and hopefully her consistency throughout the rest of the season will stay like it has the last two games.
The Falcons are still in search of their 10th victory of the season, which would surpass last years win total. Miller hopes to get this accomplished and out of the way as soon as possible.
” We would like to get that 10th win behind us and just move on and not worry about it,” Miller said. “We are working hard every night that we have a game to try and get that 10th win right now.” Tipoff for tonight’s game is scheduled for 7p.m.