Eastern Michigan Athletics
Eastern Michigan University
Chicago State
Wills and Spencer Key EMU Past Chicago State, 83-64
12/21/2009 11:22:15 PM | Women's Basketball
Junior De'Ja Wills posts a season-best 19 points in the victory
Box score.
CHICAGO, Ill. (EMUEagles.com) – After a 12-day hiatus from the hardwood, the Eastern Michigan University women's basketball team made a triumphant return to action, cruising to an 83-64 victory over Chicago State University in a non-conference contest here Monday, Dec. 21, at the Emil and Patricia A. Jones Convocation Center. The Eagles were lead by 51 combined points from hot-hands of De'Ja Wills (Anderson, Ind.-Anderson), Raina Spencer (Cleveland, Ohio-Glenville-Fordham) and Cassie Schrock (Wadsworth,Ohio-Wadsworth).
Wills notched a season-best 19 points, including 5-of-10 from downtown, while in her EMU debut Spencer was a stellar 5-of-6 from beyond the arch to finish with 17 points in just 14 minutes of work. Schrock added 15 points to go along with seven points each from Kristin Thomas (Winter Park, Fla.-Edgewater-Hillsborough C.C.) and India Hairston (Flint, Mich.-Hamady). Sophomore sensation Tavelyn James (Detroit, Mich.-Mumford), who came into the game leading the Mid-American Conference in scoring, was limited to just two points in 13 minutes of action.
Four players reached double figures in points for Chicago State, led by Tressa Breckel with 15 and nine rebounds. Laureen Pierson tossed in 14 points, as sisters Courtney and Alyssa Waldon both finished with 11.
Eastern Michigan controlled almost all aspects of the contest, including: rebounding (41 to 33), three-pointers made (11 to 3), steals (14 to 10), bench points (55 to 22) and points off turnovers (26 to 13). With the victory, the Eagles up their record to 8-2 on the season while the Cougars drop to 4-10.
After holding an eight point edge, 43-35, at the intermission a Sydney Huntley (Cincinnati, Ohio-Purcell Marian) layup at the 17:50 mark pushed the advantage to 13. However, the Cougars would not go quietly, using a 14-5 run of their own over the next 5:02 to pull within four, 55-51.
The back-and-fourth tussle continued with CSU remaining within four points, 62-58, as the clock headed under six minutes.
A pair of free throws by Schock at the 5:55 mark started a prompt 13-0 run by the Eagles to balloon the advantage to its largest of the contest at 17, 75-58, when Spencer connected on a triple from the corner. Spencer would continue to hold the shooters-touch with two more buckets combined with a pair of free throws by Lindsey Mahone (Corpus Christi, Texas-Mary Carroll) to salt the contest away at 83-62.
The long layoff showed out of the gate for EMU, as it was not until almost three minutes in that the Green and White cracked the scoreboard via a put-back from Thomas to cut the CSU lead in half, 4-2. CSU would continue to cling on to the lead as Alyssa Waldon connected on a fade-away three-pointer with 14:50 showing on the first half clock.
That would be the last time Chicago State would be on the leading-edge of the ledger, with Wills hitting consecutive three-balls to start a 21-4 run over the next 5:17 to allow Eastern to double up the Cougars, 30-15. CSU would widdle away at the deficit as the margin hovered around double-digits for the remainder of the stanza.
Eastern Michigan takes a few days off for the holidays before returning to action Tuesday, Dec. 29, against Cleveland State University. The game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. with WEMU (89.1 FM) providing action on the radio and Eagle All-Access video steaming the game over the Internet.
