Chippewas 4-4 after blowing out Olivet
A feel-good one as they head into the break.
And then it’s back to work. Caleb Huffman scored 30 points and Aundre Polk posted his first career double- double on Sunday as the Central Michigan men’s basketball team cruised past Division III Olivet, 127- 66, at Mcguirk Arena.
The win lifted CMU to 4- 4 and help salve the wounds from Friday’s 76- 61 loss at Western Michigan in the Mid-american Conference opener. It was the season opener for the Comets.
The Chippewas take a nine-day break before returning to MAC play at Eastern Michigan on Tuesday, Dec. 29 (7 p.m.).
Travon Broadway Jr. hit a 3-pointer for the first points of the game and CMU never trailed. The Chippewas built a 10-point lead six minutes into the game, bumped it 20 less than 12 minutes in, and were up 30 with just over five minutes left in the first half.
The 127 points ties for the second most in program history. CMU scored 127 against Oakland in a 1987 game and against Marygrove in 2014. CMU set the program record (134) early last season in a victory over Mississippi Valley State.
Huffman’s 30 was a career high and it was the first double- double for Polk, a 6-foot-10 freshman. Huffman made 12 of his 16 field goal attempts, leading a day on which the Chippewas made 56.4 percent of their field goal tries.
Polk had 13 points and a career-best 13 rebounds. Ralph Bissainthe, a junior also in his first year at CMU, had 17 points and 11 boards for his first double- double as a Chippewa. Both his point and rebounding totals were career bests.
Six Chippewas scored in double figures and none played more than 24 minutes. CMU finished with lopsided advantages in nearly every statistical category.
“It was good for us with so
many new players, every time we can step on the court and get game simulation, game-like atmosphere, that helps our guys,” CMU coach Keno Davis said. “Appreciative of Olivet coming in here today and proud of our guys with how they were able to keep their intensity over the 40 minutes even when the game got out of hand. That allowed us to be able to work on some things.”
The season — like life in general has been since March – has been anything but normal. But the Chippewas have continued to work, Davis said, and made strides in light of the fact that they feature so many new faces.
“We’re not at the point that we would be in a normal season going into Christmas,” he said. “That’s understandable; that’s most teams around the country. You see the upsets, you see teams not looking in midseason form because we’re not.
“I think as a coach you want to make sure that you have the intensity that you need, that guys are trying, that they have good attitudes. It’s a year unlike any other and you just want to keep trying to get better and be playing your best basketball each and every time you step on the court. I like the attitude that we have, I think we have incredible talent on this year’s team … I think the best basketball for us is ahead of us.”