Women's Hoops Downs Wright State

Box score.

DAYTON, Ohio – The Eastern Michigan University women’s basketball team cruised to a 76-59 over Wright State University Saturday afternoon here at the Nutter Center. After leading 40-33 at the intermission, the Eagles used a 9-2 run to open the second half and effectively put the game out of reach.

With the victory the Eagles improve to 4-3 on the campaign while the Raiders fall to 1-7.

Three Eagles reached double-figures in points led by freshman Alyssa Pittman with 19 on 7-of-14 shooting. Sarah VanMetre continued her stellar play recording a double-double with 16 points and 10 boards, as junior Patrice McKinney poured in 17 points in the win.

The short-handed Raiders were paced by Steph Comiar with 19 points, mostly via the three-point field goal. Sierra Crayton recorded 17 and Kanisha Ward added 10 in a losing effort.

For the contest, the Eagles shot 43.3 percent (26-of-60) from the floor and 42.1 percent from three-point range. The Eagles dominated nearly every statistical category, but struggled from the free-throw line managing just 59.3 percent (16-of-27).

Eastern raced out of the gate on a 12-3 run via nine points from VanMetre forcing the Raiders to burn a timeout with 16:47 to go in the period. The advantage grew to 10 points on two separate occasions for the Eagles and EMU it looked as if the visitors might run away from the Raiders early on.

But WSU would have other ideas, after trailing 19-9 at the 12:16 mark Cryaton single-handedly put the Raiders on her back, pouring in eight of WSU’s 19 points over a 10 minute stretch to make it 31-27 with 3:12 left before the break.

EMU responded to the challenge as it controlled the stanza’s final two minutes to take a 40-33 lead into the locker room. The Eagles limited WSU to just one field goal during the span while rolling off six points. Crayton led all-scorers with 15 points while VanMetre paced EMU with 11.

After the intermission, the momentum continued in Eastern’s direction via a 6-0 run while holding Wright State scoreless for nearly four minutes. Dressing just seven players, WSU suffered a major loss as Crayton picked up her fourth foul of the contest with 17:32 left in the period.

With the game’s leading scorer on the bench, the EMU lead grew to 17, 55-38, off of seven points from McKinney. The deficit could have been more but the Green and White struggled from the charity stripe making just three of 12 shots to open the half.

EMU kept firing on all cylinders as the defense clamped down, as the EMU edge grew to as many as 17 points, 55-38, with 11:32 to play. However, Crayton returned to the floor with 10 minutes to play in the half, keying a 9-4 run that included back-to-back three-pointers from Steph Comisar to make it 59-47. The margin would shirk to eight, 60-52, as Kanisha Ward sank a pair of free throw, but that would be all the closer they could get as EMU closed the game on a 16-7 run.

The Eagles continue their month-long road trip Tuesday night in Amherst, Mass. facing the Minutewomen of Massachusetts. The contest is schedule for 7 p.m.

Eastern Michigan Athletics

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