GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - The Golden Eagles will return to a normal two game week with one non-conference home game vs. Roosevelt before a WHAC road trip to Lourdes on Saturday. Wednesday vs. Roosevelt will be the final home game of the 2021 portion of the season as Cornerstone braces themselves for a nine game road trip over the holiday's starting on Saturday. Wednesday's game will take place at 7 p.m. in Mol Arena and Saturday's game will take place at 1 p.m. at Lourdes. To view live links for this week's contests or order tickets in advance, visit the link HERE.
Season High's Fell Short
The Golden Eagle offense exploded for their best day all season against a tough receiving votes Rochester team in their lone game of the week but it was not enough as the team fell 91-87. CU scored a season high 87 points on a season high 34 field goals and 74 attempts and they tied a season high with eight made threes. The loss drops CU to 1-9 on the year and 0-6 in WHAC play.
Career High's
The Golden Eagles saw multiple career highs this last week as Mackenzie Stien had a career high 25 points to lead the way. Maddison Fulks and Olivia Kubik each had career high's in three's as Fulks hit four and Kubik hit three. Kennedy Helderop recorded a career high in assists with seven as well. The freshman center Stephanie Ainsworth capped off the career high's with eight boards to lead CU on the day.
Cornerstone vs. the WHAC
The Golden Eagles have played six WHAC contests so far and fallen in all six of those games. However, how the conference schedule worked out this year, the second half is looking much more favorable for the Golden Eagles. In the six games already played, CU has faced six of the top seven teams in the conference. The final four games of the first half are all against the lower teams in the conference, but all of them come on the road. In February, Cornerstone will end the regular season with a four game home stand against three of the bottom four teams in the WHAC as it stands today.
Scouting Roosevelt
Cornerstone and Roosevelt have met just one time before and it was back in 2015 as the Golden Eagles suffered an 11 point home loss. The Lakers come out of the Chicagolands Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) where they are also rebuilding under second year head coach Charnelle Reed. In her first season, Reed went 0-9 in a shortened COVID-19 year. This year, the team has improved to 4-6 and 3-4 CCAC play, most recently defeating Governor's State by 11. This season, Roosevelt used the transfer market to bring in six transfers who have helped to a much better 2021-22. One of those transfers comes from the WHAC, in Ameilia McNutt from Rochester University. McNutt is one of four players to average double-figures and is second on the team in scoring at 13.2 PPG behind senior guard Ashley Smoldt who sits at 14.8 PPG. Smoldt does a little of everything as she also leads the team in assists and is second on the team with 5.5 RPG.
Scouting Lourdes
Lourdes joins Cornerstone as the only winless team in WHAC play at 3-7, 0-5 WHAC. The Gray Wolves offense has just not been there in 2021-22 similarly to the Golden Eagles, ranking 145th in the country at 65.9 PPG. Lourdes is a very young team with no seniors and seven freshmen. A pair of sophomores have led the way for Lourdes in guard Shae Pedroza with a team high 13.3 PPG and forward Mercedes Wagner with 11.3 PPG. Lourdes gets the job done defensively as they hold opponents to 69.4 PPG and they average over 40 rebounds a game led by another sophomore in Gabby Stover at 7.3.
