Women's Basketball Game 4 Preview: vs Central Michigan (1-1)

When: Thursday, November 21, 2013, at 7pm Central
Where: Al McGuire Center
Audio/Visual: It's a home game, so that means FREE VIDEO STREAMING! Live stats will be over this way.
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWBB

A 3-0 start is always reason to be pleased with how the season has gotten going. Adding a road win over #25 Vanderbilt is just icing on the cake. Marquette has the first Player of the Week in the Big East in Katherine Plouffe. The senior forward is averaging 20 points and 13 rebounds through Marquette's first three contests, and she's adding 3 assists to each game as well. The most notable change in KP's game is her four attempts from behind the three point line. She had just 13 attempts behind the arc a year ago, and while making only one of the four tries isn't the best thing in the world, her comfort with and interest in shooting from distance will cause dysfunction in defenses who are expecting Plouffe to do her damage in the paint. Sophomore point guard Brooklyn Pumroy is on a tear, averaging 7.7 assists so far this season. Even more importantly, Pumroy has a 3.8/1 assists to turnover ratio. That's a drastic improvement over the 0.7/1 that she posted last year when she was suddenly thrust into the starting spot after the season (career?) ending injury to Gabi Minix.

Central Michigan is starting their season off with six straight games away from Mount Pleasant: three on the road and then three in the 2013 Paradise Jam. They were picked to win the Western Division of the Mid-American Conference, and have had two different kinds of results in their first two games. They ran through UMass in Amherst, winning by 44, and then suffered a 22 point loss to #7/#8 Kentucky in Lexington.

The MAC picks all-division teams in the preseason, and two Chippewas made it onto the All-West Division team. Junior guard Crystal Bradford is leading CMU in scoring with 23 points per game after being the MAC Tournament MVP last year. She also played for Team USA in the World University Games over the summer and came up big for the American team, hitting the game winner in the semifinals and scoring 16 in the championship game. Fellow junior guard Jessica Green hasn't had the same kind of impact on the team, averaging 9.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 2.5 assists. Junior forward Jas'Mine Bracey wasn't on the all-division team, but she is averaging a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds per game.