Late Bucket with 0.7 Seconds Left Sinks Eagles, 82-81

AKRON, Ohio (EMUEagles.com) – The Eastern Michigan University women's basketball team set season highs in points and field goal percentage, but a late basket from the Mid-American Conference's leading scorer, Rachel Tecca, with just 0.7 seconds left gave Akron an 82-81 victory over the Green and White Wednesday night, Feb. 6, in James A. Rhodes Arena.

The Eagles (5-17, 3-6 MAC) shot a season-best 50 percent from the field, making 37-of-74 shots including 5-of-11 from long range. The Green and White found success all night long down low, scoring 56 points in the paint. EMU controlled the boards as well, pulling down 41 rebounds compared to only 24 for Akron. 19 offensive rebounds turned into 23 second chance points for the Eagles.

Several Eagles either set or tied career highs on the night as four scored in double figures. India Hairston (Flint, Mich.–Hamady) led the EMU in scoring with 18 points, tying a personal best set earlier in the season against Tulane, Dec. 29. Desyree Thomas (Waterford, Mich. – Mott) recorded and career-high 14 points to go along with seven assists and five rebounds. Junior Natachia Watkins (South Euclid, Ohio–Brush) posted a double-double, padding the statistical categories with 14 points, a career-high 15 caroms, as well as seven assists. Freshman Bianca Cage (Memphis Tenn.–Southwind) found her stroke, hitting three second half three's on her way to 11 points. Off of the bench, senior Chelsea Hite (Ligonier, Ind.–West Noble) tied her personal-best by tallying eight points.

Akron's Carly Young scored a career-high 23 points off of the bench to lead all scorers. The Zips (15-7, 6-3 MAC) proved why they are the highest scoring team in the MAC, shooting 30-of-59 (50.8) along with 12-of-26 from beyond the arc. Tecca's basket with 0.7 seconds left gave her 20 points on the night, and Hanna Luburgh and Taylor Ruper each added 11. UA converted 10-of-11 from the charity stripe while EMU made both of its attempts (2-of-2) at the line.

With EMU leading 6-5 at the 16:12 mark of the opening half, Akron went on a 15-2 run in the next 3:26 to take a 12-point lead. As the lead hovered around the low double-digits, 29-18, Eastern scored six straight to cut the lead to five. However, the Zips continued to be lethal from three-point land, making their seventh three of the contest to go up, 35-26, with 6:19 remaining in the first half.

The Eastern deficit blossomed to 11 with just under three minutes to go in the opening stanza. Coming out of the final media timeout of the half, a Taylor Bird (Lawrence, Kan.–Lawrence) triple and two Hairston layups cut the margin to four, 44-40, as the Eagles headed into the locker room.

Out of 40 first half points for the Eagles, 32 of them came in the paint. Watkins and Hairston led the way with 10 points apiece as EMU shot 19-of-37 (51.4 percent) from the floor. On the other side of the floor, Akron made 53.3 percent of its shots (16-of-30) including 8-of-16 from long range. Young's 16 points off of the bench led the Zips in the opening 20 minutes.

In the second half, Akron would increase the lead to 13, 65-52, with 10:35 remaining in the game. That is when the Eagles made their run to get back in the game. Playing tight defense and forcing turnovers, EMU cut the deficit to two with an 11-0 run in a three-minute span to make it 65-63 at the 7:12 mark of the second half.

Down 70-65 with just 5:39 to go in the contest, Eastern made another run, this time scoring ten straight points to take the lead courtesy of a Cage three from the wing. After a Thomas layup, the Eagles led 75-70, with 4:07 remaining.

EMU held onto the lead, but a Ruper three gave Akron some hope, 79-78, with 1:09 left as Akron Head Coach Jodi Kest called a timeout.

Following a pair of misses by Hairston down low, the senior from Flint, Mich. played solid defense to force a miss from Akron's Tecca to give the ball back to the Green and White with 15 seconds left. Coming out of a timeout by EMU Head Coach Tory Verdi, Akron forced a turnover on an inbounds pass, and Ruper was fouled on a layup. Ruper converted both foul shots to give Akron a one-point lead. However, Thomas quickly took the ball coast-to-coast for an open layup that did not fall, but Watkins was there for the offensive put-back, giving the Eagles an 81-80 advantage with 5.3 seconds left.

UA pushed the ball up the court, and Thomas knocked the ball out of bounds along the sideline with 2.7 seconds on the clock. On the ensuing inbounds play, Young threw a lob to the opposite block, finding Tecca who put the ball through the net with 0.7 remaining. After an EMU timeout, the ball was thrown in to Hairston, whose half-court heave bounced off the top of the backboard as Akron walked away with the victory.

The Eagles will be back in action this Saturday, Feb. 9, at the Convocation Center against the Ohio University Bobcats. Tipoff is scheduled for noon, and the game can be seen on Sportstime Ohio. EMU will be wearing pink jersey as part of the breast cancer awareness program, “Play 4 Kay.” All fans wearing pink will be admitted into the game for free.

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Team Stats

India Hairston

Desyree Thomas

Natachia Watkins

Bianca Cage

Eastern Michigan Athletics