The Eastern Michigan University women’s basketball team will play Cornell University on Black Friday at Newman Arena in Ithaca, New York.
The Big Red (1-2) will be up against the Eagles’ (2-1) high-powered offense, which is led by the number two scorer in the nation, junior Tavelyn James, who averages 33.3 points per game.
After James was named Mid-American Conference’s player of the week, EMU got a taste of what ranked competition is like in its loss Friday against the 23-ranked University of Green Bay.
The score was lopsided as the Phoenix cruised to a victory. They were led by senior guard Julie Wojta, who had 23 points in the game and is the 29th best scorer in the nation. Wojta was not the only player who had double digits as junior forward Stephanie Sension had 16 points, Adrian Ritchie had 14 and Lydia Bauer had 13.
Despite the loss James had 26 points on 10-for-28 shooting. This was the first time EMU was held under the team’s season average of 82 points this season.
The Big Red will be looking to carry the momentum of their 59-56 win last game against Colgate University Raiders (0-4) into their next two games against the University of New Hampshire on Tuesday and then EMU on Friday.
Cornell won its last game against Colgate with a put-back basket by junior forward Kristina Danielak with 29 seconds left that was followed by a pair of free throws from Stephanie Long to clinch the 59-56 win against the Raiders.
The last game of the week for the EMU women’s basketball team will be up against the Canisius College Griffins (0-2). This game will be on Sunday, Nov. 27. The Eagles will be playing the winless Griffins at the Koessler Athletic Center in Buffalo, New York at 2 p.m.
Canisius lost its last game against the Towson University Tigers (2-1) by a score of 64-50 Saturday at the Towson Center in Towson, Maryland. Canisius shot a mere 19.4 percent from the field in the first half and 35.5 percent in the second half.
They were outplayed the entire game.
If Eastern wants to go undefeated in the next two games it will need more people to contribute other than James. The Eagles will also have to lower their turnover rate. If they can accomplish both of these tasks they shouldn’t have a problem with the next three games or for the rest of the season.
