Central Michigan University Athletics
Central Michigan University
MAC Tournament
Men's Basketball Beats Akron In MAC Tourney
3/2/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 1, 2000
AKRON, OH -- The Central Michigan University men's basketball team picked the perfect time to end an eight-game losing streak. The Chippewas (6-22 overall) posted a 75-73 win over the University of Akron (17-11 overall) in the first round of the Mid-American Conference playoffs on Wednesday night at the J.A.R. Center.
The Chippewas advance to the quarterfinals on Sunday, March 5, where they take on Marshall at Cleveland's Gund Arena. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m.
The win is CMU's first in the MAC tournament since 1990 when CMU beat Miami 78-76. In fact, this is CMU's first appearance in the tourney since 1992 when it fell to Ball State, 79-65.
CMU held a 71-67 lead with 37 seconds to play when Tim Kisner hit a free throw to make the lead 72-67. Akron's David Falknor hit a three-pointer with 22 seconds left to reduce the lead to 72-70 but Kisner hit a pair of free throws to up the Chippewa lead to 74-70. The Zips made one last run when Nate Schindewolf nailed a three-pointer to make it 74-73 with 12 seconds to go. Kisner made the front end of a one-and-one to increase the CMU lead to 75-73 and Jon Borovich blocked Jami Bosley's last second shot to give the Chippewas the win.Central took the lead for good when Dan Schell hit a three-pointer at the 15:50 mark of the second half to give CMU a 43-42 advantage.
In the first half, the Zips led by as many as seven points before the Chippewas went 10-3 run to tie it up at 16-16 with 8:43 to go. It was close the rest of the half with the teams trading baskets at the end of the half to go into the break with a 34-34 tie.
David Webber returned to the Chippewa lineup and led the squad with 24 points. Chad Pleiness had 15 points and a team-best eight rebounds while Jon Borovich had 12 points, six assists, two blocked shots and three steals.
Akron was led by Andy Hipsher who had a game-high 27 points. Jami Bosley and Nate Schindewolf each added 11 points.
The matchups for Sunday's quarterfinal round are: Miami versus Bowling Green at noon, CMU against Marshall at 2 p.m., Toledo versus Ball State at 7 p.m., and Ohio against Kent at 9 p.m.The other scores from Wednesday night were: Toledo 68, Northern Illinois 64 (2 OT), Ohio 77, Western Michigan 52 and Miami 64, Eastern Michigan 51. The semifinals are set for 7 and 9 p.m., on March 6 and the final is March 8 at 7 p.m. The final three rounds are all at Gund Arena in Cleveland.
