The Eastern Michigan University women’s basketball team lost for the first time in over a week on Saturday as it fell to Bowling Green State University, 61-56 at the Convocation Center.
This loss drops the Eagles to 14-9 and 4-8 in the Mid-American Conference.
BGSU moves to 21-3 and 11-1 in the MAC.
EMU head coach Tory Verdi said after the game that while he wanted the win, he was positive about his team.
“I’m very pleased and happy with what we did today,” Verdi said. “Yes, obviously not getting the win tonight hurts, but we saw our kids battle through the course of 40 minutes.”
Verdi praised Bowling Green and said he wants to see his team continue to get better.
“Bowling Green is a very good basketball team, there is a reason they’ve won 21 games,” Verdi said. “We had our opportunities, we missed some open shots, some layups down the stretch, but at the end of the day we want to continue to improve.”
EMU was led by Olivia Fouty, who nearly recorded another stong performance, scoring 15 points and grabbing nine rebounds. Cha Sweeney and Janay Morton both chipped in with 10 points apiece.
Fouty was efficient on the night, going 6-of-8 from the field, 1-for-2 from behind the arc, and 2-of-3 from the free throw line. Sweeney, on the other hand really struggled, shooting 3-of-15 from the field, 1-of-5 from three, and 3-of-4 from the free throw line.
EMU struggled from deep as a group. After shooting a sizzling 42.9 percent in the previous win over the University of Ohio, EMU only shot 5-of-21 (23.8 percent) in the loss.
Bowling Green got two double-doubles from its’ players – 21 points and 10 rebounds from Jillian Halfhill and 13 points and 13 rebounds from Alexis Rogers.
EMU couldn’t seem to box out all night as it was outrebounded on the offensive glass 21-12 (30-22 over the game).
EMU started the game strong, leading by 13 with 11:09 in the first half, but Bowling Green followed that with a 7-0 run and by halftime they were up 34-to-29.
EMU retook the lead after a Fouty layup with 13:54 left, but lost the lead on the very next possession after a Halfhill three pointer and EMU never led again.
A couple of free throws from Morton got EMU within two, but they were never able to get any closer the rest of the way.
EMU plays again on Wednesday, Feb. 19 against the University of Toledo at the EMU Convocation Center.
Verdi said that his team is still looking forward to rest of the remaining conference schedule and won’t look too much into flaws after this loss.
“We have still got six conference games left. We want to put ourselves in a position to be successful and win some basketball games,” Verdi said. “And if we play like this, and this has been my message throughout the entire season, if we play as hard as we did today, we are going to win a lot of basketball games.”
Verdi said that he liked his team’s attitude to start the game and how hard it played at the beginning.
“I thought we came out and we were throwing, not only punches, but we were throwing haymakers,” Verdi said. “It was great to see, our kids flying around, and we just had so much composure and so much confidence. It’s just good to see that those guys continue to play hard for us and are having some success.”
