Eagles Edge Out Wayne State in Double Overtime Exhibition Contest

Box score. Highlights.

YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) – The Eastern Michigan University women's basketball team earned a hard-fought 98-95 double overtime victory over NCAA Division II nationally ranked Wayne State University in its lone exhibition contest Monday, Nov. 10.

Senior Jamaica Bucknor (Brooklyn, N.Y.-Weaver (ASA College)) and Phillis Webb (Brooklyn Park, Minn.-Osseo) each notched double-doubles for the Green and White with Bucknor contributing 25 points and 12 rebounds, while Webb had 10 points and 13 boards. Sophomore Janay Morton (Brooklyn Park, Minn.-Osseo) tied Bucknor's team-high 25 points, while Cha Sweeney (Toledo, Ohio-Rogers) posted 22 points and a game-best seven steals and six assists.

Four Eagles made their debut in the Green and White uniform as Sasha Dailey (Toledo, Ohio-Rogers), Rachel Kehoe (St. Clair, Mich.-St. Clair (St Clair County C.C.)), Sera Ozelci (Ankara, Turkey-TED Ankara College (Odessa College)), and Micah Robinson (Ann Arbor, Mich.-Huron) each contributed to the EMU scoring effort against Wayne State.

As a team, the Eagles scored 20 fastbreak points and notched 18 second chance points, while 27 came off of Warrior miscues. The Green and White swiped 18 balls and blocked eight WSU shots, while Wayne State stole the ball just six times from EMU. As a team, Eastern shot 35.6 percent from the floor (32-of-90), while Wayne State made 35-of-91 shots for a 38.5 percentage clip. The Eagles also spent quite a bit of time at the charity stripe, sinking 30-of-42 shots from the foul line.

Shareta Brown controlled the No. 17 ranked Wayne State offense, scoring 37 points and grabbing 30 rebounds while dishing out five assists and blocking five Eagle shots. Ondrea Hughes and Destiny Lavita-Stephens each had double-digit scoring efforts for WSU, posting 20 and 15 points, respectively. As a team the Warriors out-rebounded the Eagles 71-53, but had 30 turnovers compared to EMU's 16.

WSU found the first points of the contest on a Brown layup under the basket, but the Eagles quickly responded, tying the contest on three different occasions in the first five minutes of action. The Green and White forced three-straight turnovers, one of which was in the backcourt, to take the eight-point lead over the Warriors with 13:43 remaining in the first half.

The Eagles started to find their offensive rhythm, going on a 17-0 run starting with a Morton free throw before Bucknor drained a three-pointer and a fastbreak layup to put EMU up 42-23. The Green and White continued to pressure the Warriors, allowing WSU to score just 15 more points in the half. A Sweeney layup with 46 seconds left gave the Eagles a 51-38 lead heading into the locker room at halftime.

Sweeney led EMU with 17 first-half points, while Bucknor added 14 and Morton notched nine. Bucknor and KaBria Walker (Toledo, Ohio-Rogers) pulled down a team-best five rebounds and Sweeney grabbed five steals in the first 20 minutes of action. The Eagles were effective from the field, sinking 19-of-40 attempts for a 47.5 field goal percentage.

Two Warriors notched double-digit scoring in the first half with Brown contributing a team-high 12 points and Lavita-Stephens grabbing 10 points of her own. Brown also had a team-best nine boards in the opening 20 minutes and Jackie Jones added a pair of steals.

Wayne State went on a 9-1 run coming out of the locker room before a Morton three-pointer brought the EMU lead back up to eight. Brown kept the Warriors in the contest, scoring nine-straight points in four minutes to bring the score to 70-67 in favor of the Eagles with 7:52 left to play.

A layup from Brown brought WSU within one of the Eagles before an EMU turnover following the media timeout and a Hughes baseline basket gave Wayne State its first lead of the contest since the first half. Buknor and Webb made two shots apiece from the charity stripe to knot the game at 75-75. A charging call against Brown put the ball back in EMU's possession with just under three minutes to play, but the Eagles were unable to hold off the fast pace Warriors as an offensive putback from Hughes gave WSU the go-ahead point with 2:21 left in the contest.

The game continued to go back-and-forth between the two teams as Morton tied the contest for the seventh time on a layup with just one minute left, and misses on both ends of the court forced a Wayne State timeout with 20 seconds to play. Wayne State was unable to find a basket after the timeout, sending the contest into overtime.

After each team scored quick points at the start of overtime, there would be a two-minute scoring drought before Webb made both of her free throws to knot the score at 83-83. The game saw its ninth lead change when Bucknor made a jump shot to put the Green and White up 85-84 with time dwindling on the clock. Bucknor came up big on the opposite side of the court, blocking a Hughes layup, forcing a foul, and making a free throw to give Eastern the two-point lead.

A foul with 2.4 seconds on the clock proved to be costly to the Eagles when Brown drained both free throws, knotting the score at 86-86 and sending the contest into its second overtime.

Eastern entered the second overtime on fire, opening up the period on a 10-2 run before Wayne State called a timeout. Coming out of the break in action, the Warriors notched five-straight points, bringing the score to 96-93 in favor of EMU. With 12 seconds left to play, Morton converted on a layup before Hughes took the ball down court and scored with just nine seconds left to play. Nonetheless, Eastern held onto the ball for the final nine seconds of play to secure the 98-95 victory in its lone exhibition contest of the 2014-15 campaign.

The Eagles will open their 2014-15 regular season Friday, Nov. 14 against Kent State Tuscarawas. The contest will be a doubleheader event with the men's basketball team who will take on Saint Frances (Ill.) at 2:30 p.m. as a part of Education Day inside the Convocation Center.

Eagles Edge Out Wayne State in Double Overtime Exhibition Contest

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Players Mentioned

Jamaica Bucknor

Sasha Dailey

Rachel Kehoe

Janay Morton

Sera Ozelci

Micah Robinson

Cha Sweeney

KaBria Walker

Phillis Webb

Eastern Michigan Athletics