The Eastern Michigan Eagles rolled over the Madonna Crusaders Tuesday night, beating the Crusaders 68-88 at the Convocation Center.
This game marks the fifth straight win for the Eagles in the Convocation Center, leaving them undefeated at home. All together, they stand at 6-3, making the Crusaders 7-3 with the loss.
Sophomore Janay Morton gave Eastern their first lead with a 3-point shot to start off the game. Morton dominated the first half, scoring 13 points.
Both teams came off the bench with lots of energy, but lacked control. The game was neck and neck for most of the first half, and the score was tied for over five minutes.
Eastern began with a tenacious defense that forced two shot clock violations in the first half. The Eagles pressed full court from beginning to end, resulting in 6 steals and contributing to Madonna’s 15 turnovers.
“That’s our style of play,” said coach Tory Verdi about the aggressive defense seen in tonight’s game.
In the beginning, the Eagles struggled to get in front of the ball. As a team, the Crusaders shot an impressive 77 percent from the arc in the first half. Despite shots not falling for the Eagles, they went into halftime with the lead at 44-39.
The Eagles managed to come out of halftime with the same energy but much more control, and managed to pull away from the Crusaders possession-by-possession, resulting in their 20-point win over Madonna.
With a career high performance, Jamaica Bucknor led the Eastern Eagles in points Tuesday, adding 25 to the total 88. She also led the team with 8 rebounds.
The Eagles defense kept Madonna out of the paint for the most part, but on the arc rested Lindsey Hernden, a Madonna Freshman who was close to unstoppable. Herden was the lead scorer for Madonna, tying her career high with 24 points.
After scoring over 20 points in the last two games, sophomore Cha Sweeny added 9 to the scoreboard, and was a huge presence in almost all other aspects of the game. She added an impressive 7 assists for Eastern, and had 2 steals.
The Eagles have traveled over 4000 miles in the last month, and look forward to some time off for finals. Next action for Eastern will be on Dec. 22, just down the street against the University of Michigan Wolverines.
