Central Michigan University Athletics
Penguins Run Past Chippewas, 74-50
11/8/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Box Score
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Early foul trouble put two Central Michigan University starters on the bench just two and a half minutes into the game and the Chippewas continued to stall out of the gate in a 74-50 season-opening loss to Youngstown State on Wednesday. The game opened action in the the East Lansing Regional of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer.
The Chippewas will now face Brown out of the Ivy league in the consolation game on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.
"We are very much at a building stage," CMU's Ernie Zeigler said following his first game as a head coach. "We are trying to establish ourselves and learn how to win and compete. For us, we were kind of like deer in headlights for those first 10 minutes, and if you look at the second half, we actually held them to 35 percent shooting and we battled a bit."
The Penguins jumped out to an early 4-0 lead and never trailed in the contest. A Quin Humphrey three-pointer with 13:40 left in the opening frame made it a 10-point lead, 14-4, and YSU held a double-digit advantage the rest of the game.
Humphrey, who led the Horizon League in scoring last season, poured in a game-high 25 points.
CMU was whistled for 30 fouls in the game, including 18 in the first half. The Chippewas also coughed the ball up 18 times.
Senior Sefton Barrett led the Chippewas with 12 points and eight rebounds off the bench. Redshirt freshman Andre Smyth started and had eight points and six boards.
"I was very pleased with the way Andre Smyth battled," Zeigler said. "I think that's something that we're definitely going to be able to build on. I think in the second half, we actually did a better job defensively, mixing up our defense and giving ourselves a chance to continue to compete."
CMU won the battle of the boards, 37-36, and shot 40 percent in the second half after hitting just 20 percent of its shots in the first.
Eddie Spencer had seven points and seven boards and Drew Walker had four points and five rebounds.
Michigan State defeated Brown, 45-34, in the other first-round game.
NOTES:
* The Chippewas found out earlier in the day that freshman Marko Spica from Serbia and Montenegro was cleared to play this season. He had two points and a rebound in 17 minutes.
* Giordan Watson, CMU's leading scorer last season, was 0-for-7 from the floor and had just two points. He dished out a game-high four assists.
* CMU had 17 offensive rebounds, including four by Eddie Spencer and three each by Drew Walker and Andre Smyth.
* Both of Andre Smyth's field goals were three-pointers.
* The Chippewas are now 18-17 in season openers during the Mid-American Conference era.
* The CMU-Brown game will pit a pair of rookie head coaches against each other. Both teams return all five starters.
