Junior guard Gabby Elliott (3) plays defense during a matchup against Florida A&M, held at the Breslin Center on Nov. 17, 2022. The Spartans defeated the Rattlers 109-44.
Coming off of a swift 109-44 win against Florida A&M, the Michigan State women’s basketball team will face Central Michigan on Saturday afternoon. The Spartans, now 5-0, look to continue their reign against the Chippewas in their first road game of the year.
Going into the matchup, the Spartans have key highlights from their last matchup to look back on as an incentive to keep this run going in their favor.
First-half takeaways for the Spartans were not only in aspects of their defense, but also their offense especially.
Absolutely locked-down defensive skills were crucial, forcing the Rattlers' turnovers to double digits in the first half of play alone. This translated very effectively to their offense, going on a dominant 21-0 run against the Rattlers within the second quarter. This put them up by a confident 20-point lead, as the Rattlers scrambled to find a solution.
Failure to iron out mistakes led the Rattlers down 48-21 at halftime.
It was far from over from the Spartans’ point of view. They got their point across going into the fourth up 76-28.
Coming out of halftime, the Spartans were able to get off to a hot start that remained steaming until the final buzzer, which rang in the favor of the green and white, 109-44.
The Central Michigan Chippewas are coming off of an 84-71 loss against Indiana State. The Chippewas continue their season 0-3 going into Saturday's game against the Spartans. Though Central Michigan fell to Indiana State by a 13-point deficit, the Spartans do have to keep an eye out for Chippewa freshman guard Bridget Utberg, who contributed 21 points on the day. A sharpshooter at heart, Utberg will surely test out the range of the Spartans’ defense they displayed last game against the Rattlers.
Utberg will meet her match against a fellow scoring specialist, Spartans sophomore guard Matilda Ekh, who gave the Rattlers 16 points last game.
The Chippewas had an unlikely amount of turnovers (23) last game against the Sycamores that mostly contributed to their demise.
The Spartans had 17 turnovers in their last game, but forced 27 on the Rattlers. Furthermore, the Spartans were able to profit 31 points off of the turnovers they forced alone, while Florida A&M was only able to profit seven off of turnovers they forced on the Spartans.
It’s a numbers game to say the least. Forcing turnovers has been a specialty for the Spartans, which is why they remain 5-0. In the turnover battle, the Spartans have been consistent in winning in the past five games they’ve played.
Tipoff is at 1 p.m. with streaming available on ESPN+.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
