East Michigan News

Sisi Eleko achieved a significant milestone in her basketball career, scoring 14 points to surpass the 1,000-point mark. Despite this achievement, the Eastern Michigan University (EMU) women's basketball team suffered a defeat against Ball State University with a final score of 101-69 on January 8 at Worthen Arena.

The Eagles, now holding a record of 1-12 overall and 0-3 in the Mid-American Conference (MAC), saw four players reach double figures in scoring. Elena Cabello from Malaga, Spain, had an impressive performance with a career-high of 12 points. She scored the first nine points for EMU, shooting perfectly from the floor early in the game.

Both teams matched each other with 21 points in the second quarter. The Eagles demonstrated their long-range shooting capabilities by making five out of ten three-point attempts during this period. Mackenzie Amalia and Olivia Smith each contributed two three-pointers, while Olivia Westphal added another.

Ball State started strong in the third quarter with a 20-0 run before Smith ended it with a transition three-pointer. Eastern Michigan closed out the quarter on an 11-8 run as both Amalia and Cabello reached double-digit scores.

In addition to Eleko's milestone achievement, she extended her streak to twelve consecutive games scoring over ten points. She has accumulated 261 points for EMU across twelve games after transferring from Canisius College where she scored 743 points over two seasons.

Mackenzie Amalia tied her season-best performance with eighteen points against Ball State. Her contribution included five field goals and six successful free throws without any misses. Olivia Westphal finished with twelve points including two triples, maintaining her record of making at least two three-pointers in ten out of eleven games this season.

Olivia Smith added nine points through three successful three-pointers, bringing her close to reaching one hundred career rebounds and free throws made.

Despite these individual performances, Eastern Michigan could not overcome Ball State's dominance as they improved their record to 11-4 overall and maintained an unbeaten streak within MAC play at 3-0.

Looking ahead, Eastern Michigan will host the University of Akron on January 11 for a doubleheader event featuring both women's and men's teams at George Gervin GameAbove Center. The women's game is scheduled for 1 p.m., followed by the men's game at approximately 3:30 p.m., available for streaming on ESPN+ along with radio coverage on WEMU (89.1 FM) and The Varsity Network app.