Chips fall short to WMU in MAC opener
KALAMAZOO » The Central Michigan men’s basketball team saw its win streak end at three games on Friday as the Chippewas fell, 76- 61, in their Mid-american Conference opener at Western Michigan in the Broncos’ University Arena.
The loss leaves CMU at 3- 4 with a nonconference game against Olivet at home on Sunday (1 p.m.) at Mcguirk Arena. The Chippewas had won their previous six meetings with the Broncos (2- 4, 1- 0 MAC).
How it happened
Western Michigan built a double- digit lead, 19-9, midway through the first half. The Chippewas never got closer than eight points the rest of the way and trailed by double digits for the vast remainder of the game.
CMU trailed by as many as 21 points early in the second half, but twice managed to get
its deficit to eight points, the second time at 63-55 with under four minutes to play.
“We knew that clock was ticking and that we needed to pick the tempo of the game up,” CMU coach Keno Davis said. “Probably should have done it earlier. When we’re running, we’re more explosive in what we do and that gave us a chance to come back. I liked the way that we were adapting.”
Leaders
Junior Meikkel Murray scored 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead the Chippewas.
Devontae Lane and Travon Broadway Jr. each scored 13 points. Lane had a seasonbest five steals, while Murray’s 18 points were a career high, and he matched his career best with eight boards.
The Numbers
The Chippewas shot a season-low 34.9% from the floor and finished just five of 19 (26.3%) from 3-point range. The five 3-point
ers and the 3-point percentage were both the Chippewas’ lowest since their seasonopening loss at Illinois- Chicago.
They were outrebounded, 37-30,
“When those kind of numbers go against you, a lot of times it’s a blowout before halftime or it’s over in the first 10 minutes,” CMU coach Keno Davis said. “We battled. We have a long way to go in trying to improve on some things, but we know that if we can make some slight improvements it’s going to show up on the scoreboard and with the conference season underway earlier than normal we’ve got to try to adjust as quickly as we can.
“For us, it shows where we are when we’re not executing as well as we need to. I think it also shows that even in a game where we struggled, we’re not that far away with our athleticism and our talent from being able to get some ugly wins as well as those that look good. I’m very optimistic that we can continue to get better with the talent that we put on the court.”