Women's Hoops Hosts BGSU on Hall of Fame Weekend

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EMU HOSTS BOWLING GREEN ON HALL OF FAME WEEKEND: Riding a two-game winning streak, the Eastern Michigan University women's basketball team returns home Saturday, Feb. 15, to host Bowling Green State University. Game time is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. inside the Convocation Center. The game is the second leg of a doubleheader with the EMU men's basketball team, which tangles with the University of Toledo at 2 p.m.
Eastern Michigan enters the game with a 14-8 (4-7 MAC) record, while Bowling Green is 20-3 (10-1 MAC) on the season having won their sixth consecutive game Sunday, Feb. 9, against Miami University, 91-45.
Veteran broadcasters Chad Bush and Greg Steiner will have the call on WEMU (89.1 FM) beginning at 4:20 p.m. Live video and statistics of the game can also be found on EMUEagles.com.

ALL-TIME AGAINST BOWLING GREEN: Saturday's contest marks the 63rd meeting between the Bowling Green Falcons and the Eastern Michigan Eagles, who first met during the 1976-1977 season. BGSU has dominated the all-time series, 48-14, including winning the last 12 meetings between the two schools. Earlier this season, the Falcons captured a 71-57 victory at the Stroh Center, Jan. 23.
EMU's last victory in the series occurred Feb. 19, 2005, when the Eagles notched a 57-52 win at the Convocation Center.

HALL OF FAME WEEKEND AT EASTERN: The Eastern Michigan University E-Club Alumni Chapter, a group of former EMU varsity athletic letterwinners, welcomes seven new members into the E-Club Athletic Hall of Fame this weekend. The Class of 2013 will be honored at the Hall of Fame ceremony Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, in the EMU Student Center on campus.
The Class of 2013 includes: Dennis Betts (men's swimming), Earl Boykins (men's basketball), JoyAnn Clarke (women's track and field), Wondella Devers (women's basketball/track), Derrick Dial (men's basketball), Eugene Smith (administrator) and Donald Stewart (men's basketball and football).
In addition to the Hall of Fame inductees, the E-Club will present Ken Behmer with the Ron Oestrike Distinguished Service Award. The award, named after former EMU baseball-coaching legend Ron Oestrike, was first presented at the 2008 Hall of Fame ceremony to Oestrike. The award was developed to reward outstanding service to the Athletic department, E Club and Athletic Club.

DEVERS HELPED ESTABLISH THE BASKETBALL FOUNDATION AT EMU: A pioneer in EMU women's athletics, Wondella Devers, was a women's basketball and track & field athlete from 1971-73. At EMU, she claimed two first-place honors in the high jump and played on a third place women's basketball team. In 2000, she received a varsity letter from EMU honoring her years as an EMU athlete before women's teams were recognized at the collegiate level.
   Prior to attending EMU, Devers played basketball and ran track for Belleville High School from 1966-69. In 1969, she joined the women's basketball team at Washtenaw Community College.
After graduating from EMU in 1974, Devers spent 31 years as a physical education and math teacher for the Van Buren Public Schools, retiring in 2005.
   In 2012, Devers joined the Michigan Spirits Women's Senior Basketball Team representing the State of Michigan at the National Games, winning a Gold Medal at the Cleveland Games, and a Bronze Medal at the Huntingsman Games in their first year.

EAGLES LOOK TO SNAP THE SKID AGAINST THE FALCONS: When the Eagles and Falcons have tangled over the past 12 seasons, it has almost been a guarantee that one of the teams (if not both) is on top of the MAC standings. Unfortunately, despite all the success EMU has still found itself on the wrong side of the scoreboard in each of the last 12 meetings against BGSU.
In total, 56 different student-athletes and four different head coaches have participated for EMU during the streak. The Falcons have outscored the Eagles by more than 12 points a contest (68.2 to 55.5) in those dozen games, shooting 40.2 percent from the field to just 33.9 percent for EMU. The other factor has been EMU's inability to get to the charity stripe, with BGSU having attempted 97 more free throws than the Eagles (308 to 211).
BGSU has held the lead from wire-to-wire in five of the contests. The Eagles have not led the Falcons during game action since March 12, 2011, at the 17:34 mark of the second half.

BACK ON DEFENSE: In wins over Kent State, Feb. 6, and Ohio, Feb. 9, the Eagles got back to their defensive roots limiting opponents to an average of just 56.0 points per game. EMU also was able to create 43 turnovers while staying close to even on the glass (35.0 to 36.0).
The 55-point output by Ohio, Feb. 9, was the fewest points the Eagles had allowed since Dec. 22, 2013, against Monmouth. Meanwhile, the Kent State game marked the first time in Mid-American Conference play that the Eagles had gone to the free throw line more than the opposition.

WATKINS CLEANING THE GLASS: Over the past four contests, senior Natachia Watkins has made her presence known with an average of 10.0 rebounds a contest. At Central Michigan, Jan. 30, Watkins tied her career-high with 15 caroms. She then posted 11 boards against both Miami, Feb. 2, and Kent State, Feb. 6.

HOLDING ON TO THE ROCK: Eastern has forced opponents to turn the ball over 180 more times (477 to 297) for a turnover margin of +8.2. If this stands, EMU will have shattered its previous best of +6.00 during the 2011-12 campaign.

CHA CLIMBING THE CHARTS: Leading the team in scoring at 16.0 points per game, freshman Cha Sweeney is making her mark in her first season as an Eagle. With 351 points thus far in 2013-14, the EMU guard is ranked sixth in the EMU record books for most points scored by a freshman. She is just five points away from surpassing Laurie Byrd for fifth on the all-time list, while only eight from Alyssa Pittman's mark of 358 points.
EMU great Tavelyn James scored 426 points throughout the 2008-09 season to top that freshman scoring chart. However, at her current pace, Sweeney will de-throne James' freshman total. If she remains averaging 16.0 points per game for the rest of the season, the Toledo, Ohio native will have at least 480 points by season's end, flying past the record-setting mark set by James.

THE COUNTDOWN TO 1,000: Senior Natachia Watkins has scored 951 points in her career and is 20th all time for EMU. There are currently 17 players in the 1,000-point club for EMU women's basketball.

MAC FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR CANDIDATES: Freshmen Cha Sweeney and Janay Morton are both making a strong candidacy for the MAC Freshman of the Year award. The two are the only freshmen ranked inside the league's top-20 in scoring; Sweeney is seventh in the MAC averaging a team-best 16.0 points a game while ranking ninth in both steals (1.9) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.2) . Meanwhile, Morton cracks the rankings in three-pointers made (3rd - 2.3), scoring (7th - 14.7 ppg), and free-throw percentage (13th - 76.5).
No EMU student-athlete has won the award since Alyssa Pittman claimed the honor following the 2006-07 campaign.

TOP FRESHMEN SCORERS: Cha Sweeney and Janay Morton are two of just 15 freshmen ranked nationally in the NCAA's top 250 scorers. The first-year players include: Chrishae Rowe, Oregon (23.0), Kelsey Plum, Washington (19.7), Sara Dickey, Evansville (18.2), Kaela Davis, Georgia Tech (18.0), Larryn Brooks, Indiana (17.0), Kaylah Keys, High Point (16.9), Diamond DeShields, North Carolina (16.8), Jasmine Nwajei, Wagner (16.5), Sweeney (16.0), Fanni Szabo, Dartmouth (15.4), Erica Williams, Winthrop (15.3), Amanda Zahui B., Minnesota (15.0), Nia Coffey, Northwestern (14.9), Tiasha Gray, Austin Peay (14.8) and Morton (14.6)

MAC TOURNAMENT OUTLOOK: With the 2014 MAC Basketball Tournament just over a month away, it is time to gaze into the crystal ball to see where the Eagles could possibly end up to begin conference tournament play. If the regular season ended today, Eastern would be the No. 9 seed for the tournament, traveling to No. 8-seeded Northern Illinois for a first round contest set to take place March 10. For a complete MAC Tournament outlook, please check page 14 of these notes.

YOUTH BEING SERVED: Heading into the 2013-14 campaign, Head Coach Tory Verdi knew he would be leading a very young team this season as the Eagles welcomed eight newcomers to the roster. In 22 games, the newcomers have combined for 59.4 percent (1,025 points) of the squad's offense.

TOO SHORT?: Standing at just 5-foot-2, Cha Sweeney might have been labeled coming out of high school as someone too short to play Division I basketball. The Toledo, Ohio product has so far proved those critics wrong, as she ranks 166th nationally in scoring and is the shortest player ranked nationally inside the top 250 scorers.
Sweeney joins Longwood's Daeisha Brown (15.9 ppg), Ole Miss' Valencia McFarland (16.0 ppg) and Nicholls State's Emani White (18.9 ppg) as the only four players nationwide to average 15-or-more points a contest and be 5-foot-4 or shorter.

NORTHWEST OHIO COMES TO YPSI: Eastern Michigan has long had a history of pulling student-athletes from Northwest Ohio, but Head Coach Tory Verdi has taken it to a whole new level. The Eagles feature three products from the Toledo area including Olivia Fouty (Sylvania Northview), KaBria Walker (Toledo Rogers) and Cha Sweeney (Toledo Rogers). The three have combined for 28.4 percent of the team's rebounds and 35.6 percent of its offense.

SEEKING 20/20 VISION: One of Head Coach Tory Verdi's goals with the team's uptempo offense is to create more possessions and to put up 20-or-more shots than the opposition. The Eagles have accomplished that feat on five occasions, including taking a season-best 33 more shots than Marygrove, Nov. 30. The Eagles have been close to the goal in three other games, most recently taking 18 more field goal attempts than Buffalo, Jan. 18.

STOP, THIEF!: With her three steals at Buffalo, Jan. 18, senior Desyree Thomas became the EMU all-time leader in steals in a career with 267. Thomas passed Ryan Coleman's previous standard of 265 swipes which has stood since the 2006 campaign. The Mid-American Conference's active leader in steals, Thomas, ranks eighth nationally among current players in steals. Toledo's Kim Knuth (1995-99) holds the MAC standard with 368 steals.

'GET A T-O BABY!': Unlike Dick Vitale's famous catchphrase where he lets coaches know they need a timeout during ESPN broadcasts, EMU Head Coach Tory Verdi and his team need to force more turnovers than they give away; so far this season, the Eagles have done a great job buying into this system. EMU has had fewer turnovers than its opposition in 20 of its 21 games this season. The only time Eastern coughed up the basketball more than its competition was in a setback to Northern Illinois, Jan. 12. Moreover, the Green and White has forced 30 or more turnovers three times throughout the 2013-14 campaign in wins versus Marygrove (Nov. 30), Wagner (Dec. 21) and Monmouth (Dec. 22).

LAST TIME WE MET: Eastern Michigan fell in a Mid-American Conference cross-divisional showdown to Bowling Green, 71-57, Jan. 23, at the Stroh Center. The dynamic freshmen duo of Cha Sweeney and Janay Morton recorded 36 of EMU's 57 points, scoring 18 apiece. Morton tallied 14 of her total 18 points in the first half, while Sweeney totaled 15 second half points. As a team, the Green and White shot at just a 35.5 percent clip (22-of-62), including 4-of-18 from long range. The Eagles also struggled from the line, sinking just 9-of-19 free throws. Eastern was able to force 10 steals that led to 16 fast break points.
Bowling Green was led in scoring by Alexis Rogers, who recorded 24 points on a night she eclipsed the 1,000 career point total at BGSU. Two other Falcons reached double figures as Deborah Hoekstra and Jillian Halfhill scored 16 and 14, respectively. The Orange and Brown sank just as many field goals as Eastern, but took 14 fewer shots for a 22-of-48 (45.8 percent) performance. BGSU out-rebounded EMU, 43-31, while also finding success from the charity stripe. The Falcons made 26 trips to the line where they converted 22.

TOLEDO ON THE HORIZON: The Feb. 19 contest marks the 71st meeting between Toledo and Eastern Michigan, who first met during the 1977-78 season. The Rockets lead the overall series, 43-27, including winning both meetings last season.

Eastern Michigan Athletics

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