In a jaw-dropping display of resilience, the women’s basketball team staged a comeback victory against the Central Michigan University (CMU) Chippewas on Saturday, Dec. 9, at the OU Credit Union O’rena.
Despite being down by 20 points at one point, the Grizzlies battled back and claimed victory late in the fourth quarter.
“It’s a fabulous win,” interim head coach Deanna Richard said. “We’re coming off of two really bad losses, and we were just talking about how we can change, and we can seal our fate right here. But we gotta get out there and play hard.”
Maddy Skorupski led the Grizzlies in scoring with 19 points and notched four steals, three rebounds and an assist. Notably, Skorupski was the most efficient player on the floor all night for the Grizzlies, knocking down six of her 12 shots, four coming from three.
The Grizzlies initiated the game with two free throws from Markyia McCormick after an administrative error from CMU led to a technical foul. Despite claiming the early lead, the Chippewas responded with a 12-0 run and held OU without a field goal for the quarter’s first five minutes.
While the Grizzlies were able to find their groove on offense, CMU continued to cause issues. After a layup from Karrington Gordon, the Chippewas extended their lead to 13 points, leaving the Grizzlies behind 28-15 to close out the first.
The second quarter replicated how the first quarter ended for the Grizzlies. Both teams were able to keep each other on offense, and although the Grizzlies outscored the Chippewas by two points in the quarter, the team entered halftime down 45-34.
At the start of the third quarter, CMU started pulling away from the Grizzlies. In the first four minutes of the quarter, the Chippewas went on a 10-5 run. At one point during the run, CMU extended its lead to 20 points, the largest of the night.
In response to the run, OU capitalized on a 6-0 run to bring the CMU lead down to 14 points. As both teams battled the rest of the quarter, Skorupski sank her second 3-pointer of the night, and the Grizzlies concluded the quarter trailing by 12 points.
Despite the large deficit, OU began firing on all cylinders in the fourth quarter. The Grizzlies held the Chippewas scoreless through the first two minutes and converted on every shot attempt to bring them within six points of CMU.
“We mixed up our defenses, and I think that helped our team. They stopped overthinking things too much,” Richard said. “Bottom line is we needed to rebound, and we did late in the game, and I think that was a huge difference. That got them [CMU] a little bit flustered.”
As the final quarter progressed, the Grizzlies overtook the Chippewas with six minutes remaining in the fourth. Notably, this was the Grizzly’s first lead in the match since the initial free throws to open the game.
Although CMU took the lead back on three separate occasions for the rest of the match, the Grizzlies always answered and took the lead back from CMU on each occasion.
With twenty seconds remaining, Linda van Schaik hit the game-winning free throws for the Grizzlies. McCormick and Miriam Ibezim also sunk a free throw each, and the game ended in favor of the Grizzlies at 79-76.
“I’m just proud of them. I can’t tell you the fighting that came out tonight. It was really good to see,” Richard said.
Coming up, the Grizzlies will be at home for the holidays. The team hosts the Toledo Rockets on Sunday, Dec. 17, and the Miami Redhawks on Thursday, Dec. 21. The Grizzlies will play both games at the OU Credit Union O’rena.
