A wild weekend for sports at home didn’t stop the Ferris women’s basketball team from starting their season at the Conference Crossover Tourney.
The Bulldogs opened their 2021-2022 season on Saturday, Nov. 13 at the GLIAC-GMAC Challenge in Detroit, as they came away on the weekend with a spilt as they fell to Walsh by a 16-point deficit at the Wayne State Fieldhouse.
Ferris took a four-point lead after the first quarter, but were then outscored 21-5 in the second as the Cavaliers began to pull away. Ferris won the third quarter by a single point; however it was not enough to catch Walsh as they finished off the season-opening win as they outscored the Bulldogs 24-19 in the fourth quarter with a score of 80-64.
Walsh had shot 53% from the floor and held Ferris to only 33.8% shooting in the contest. The Bulldogs finished with a making only 25% from long range and kept a 73.3% free throw shot to help their offense.
Ferris had four starters reached double-digit scores as junior forward Chloe Idoni notched a team-high 20 points. Ferris sophomore guard Kadyn Blanchard added 13 points, senior guard Mallory McCartney collected 11 points and senior guard Adrienne Anderson joined in with 10 points as the four starters combined for 54 of Ferris’s 64 total points.
Walsh out rebounded the Bulldogs 41-35 and forced Ferris to turn the basketball over 15 times in a tough fought game. Ferris did hold Walsh to a 27.3% from the three-point line but Walsh was able to connect with 70.8% of their free throws. The Cavaliers were led by sophomore Quionche Carter with 28 points and graduate Mayci Sales, as she finished with 25 points and 11 rebounds in a double-double performance. Idoni added a team-high eight rebounds for Ferris while Anderson had eight assists for the Bulldogs.
Ferris State bounced back on Sunday, Nov. 14 as the Bulldogs took on Lake Erie Storm as the Bulldogs picked up a 78-49 win to end the conference crossover event in Detroit. Ferris jumped out to a four-point lead after the first quarter and held that lead as the teams went into halftime. After the break Ferris made a run to put the game on cruise control as they put up 28 points in the third quarter and held the Storm to only eight points for that quarter. The Bulldogs ended the fourth quarter as they added 16 more points to their impressive 29-point victory over Lake Erie.
Ferris was led by Blanchard with 21 points on Sunday followed by Idoni with 14 points, and graduated guard Samantha Krauss with 11 more points to add. The Bulldogs shot a 40.6% from the floor and held Lake Erie to a 32.1% field goal shot. Ferris was just under 40% from the three-point line and out rebounded the Storm by six in the win. The Bulldogs forced Lake Erie to turn the ball over 21 times enroute to their 29-point victory.
The Ferris women’s basketball team will look ahead to their road game against Lewis on Wednesday, Nov. 17 as tip-off will start at 6 p.m. and then Ferris will gear up for the Quincy Classic for the weekend action.