CMU men drop eighth in a row at Ball State
MUNCIE, IND. >> Another valiant effort in the face of daunting odds.
The shorthanded Central Michigan men’s basketball team pushed Ball State to the limit on Saturday before succumbing, 97-91, at the Cardinals’ Worthen Arena.
CMU was again playing without several team members, including leading scorer Travon Broadway Jr. and point guard Devontae Lane, who are out with COVID considerations.
And, like in their loss two days earlier at Buffalo, the Chippewas hung tough in going toe-to-toe with a conference foe. CMU is 6-15, 2-12 MAC. Ball State, which made 55 percent of its field goal attempts, is 9-11, 7-8.
“These last couple of games we’ve played as hard as we can, and we’re just too shorthanded to be able to overcome a great shooting night by Ball State or a very physical healthier team in Buffalo,” CMU coach Keno Davis said.
“It’s easy as a coach or a fan or as a player to always be positive after the wins and negative after the losses,” Davis said. “But after these couple of games, I couldn’t be more proud of how hard we competed, and I think that’s a big positive moving forward. Tough to be positive in a year like 2020 but there a lot of positives that we’ve had and one of them is being able to play.
“It’s tough to lose the close games; it’s a lot tougher to not even be able to play.”
Ralph Bissainthe scored a career-high 27 points while Caleb Huffman and Meikkel Mur
ray added 24 apiece for the Chippewas, who trailed by just one, 43-42, at halftime and were down just four, 93-89, with 20 seconds to play.
It was Bissainthe’s third consecutive start as a Chippewa. The 6-foot-7 junior from North Miami, Fla. has been among the first players off the bench this season and has averaged about 21 minutes per game.
But much like Huffman and many of the other Chippewas, Bissainthe has picked up the slack as the
Chippewas have continually battled foul trouble and Covid-related absence as the season has progressed.
He had 15 points in 31 minutes on Thursday at Buffalo; he logged 37 minutes and had a career-high 12 rebounds to complement his 27 points at Ball State to post his first career doubledouble.
It marked the secondconsecutive game that Huffman has scored 24 points, his second-highest total as a Chippewa.
“I think our fans are probably starting to see why I was so excited about the talent on this team,” Davis said. “I wish they could have seen us at full
strength because there’s nobody in this league that we can’t compete with and we can’t beat when we’re at full strength.
“What this team has gone through – I know there are other programs out there that have gone through this – but I’d put our group up against anybody out there. If anything, it’s revealed a lot of character from our guys who have shown who they really are as people.”
The Chippewas are scheduled to close the regular season with two home games next week: Tuesday, March 2 vs. Toledo, and Friday, March 5 vs. Northern Illinois.