Chippewas Fall To Huskies, 80-70

Wednesday, February 22

DeKalb, Ill.

7:00 PM CT

Central Michigan University

Northern Illinois

2/22/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Feb. 22, 2006

Box Score

DeKALB, Ill. - Forty-one points by a trio of freshmen wasn't enough to compensate for subpar performances from Central Michigan University's two leading scorers in an 80-70 loss at Mid-American Conference West Division co-leader Northern Illinois on Wendesday night.

The Chippewas got 21 points out of rookie Chris Kellermann with 19 of them coming in the second half, including five three-pointers.

CMU (4-20, 1-14 Mid-American) trailed the entire first half, including an 11-point deficit. The Chippewas were down 34-31 at the break before Kellermann scored the opening bucket of the second frame and Sefton Barrett followed with an acrobatic layup as CMU racked up four straight points to take its first lead, 35-34.

Kellermann would hit a trey minutes later to give CMU its last lead at 41-38 before NIU (14-10, 9-6 Mid-American) quickly regained control and used a key 13-4 run push the margin back up to double digits at 60-49 in favor of the home team.

CMU was able to get as close as four down with four and a half minutes left but NIU rattled off an 8-0 run and held the Chippewas at bay the rest of the way.

Freshman Jon Yeazel added a career-high 13 off the bench and Aaron Richie had seven.

"We gave great effort," head coach Jay Smith said. "Our guys played their hearts out. We had an opportunity to win this game in the second half.

"I'm excited about our young kids. We had 24 points off the bench and one turnover. We had three freshmen combine for 41 points."

Kellermann's 21 points came after he scored a career-high 25 on Saturday in the win over Morehead State. His five treys were a career high.

"We had a couple opportunities to get the ball to Chris when he had a hot hand but some guys took some ill-advised shots," Smith said. "NIU made big shots down the stretch and unfortunately Sefton (Barrett) and Giordan (Watson) didn't play the way they are capable of."

Barrett (14.1 ppg) and Watson (13.4 ppg) entered the game as CMU's leading scorers but they were held to five and nine points, respectively. Watson dished out six assists.

It was a rough night for both team's top scorers as NIU's Todd Peterson (11.0 ppg) was scoreless while going 0-for-6 from the floor.

"I thought we did a good job of disrupting Peterson," Smith added.

Five Huskies stepped up in his place to hit double figures, including Ben Rand's team-high 14 points.

NIU shot 49 percent from the floor to CMU's 45 and both teams hit 7-of-19 three-point attempts for 37 percent. They both struggled from the line as well with NIU hitting 65 percent to CMU's 56, however, the home team held a sizeable advantage in trips to the stripe going 15-for-23 to CMU's 5-for-9.

The Chippewas now face the other West Division co-leader, Western Michigan, on Saturday. Game time is set for 2 p.m., and the contest will be televised live throughout Michigan on Comcast Local.

NOTES:

Chris Kellermann has scored 46 points and hit nine three-pointers in the last two games.
CMU's .446 field goal percentage was its second-best on the road this season.
Sefton Barrett had just five points before fouling out in 20 minutes. In the first meeting, Barrett, CMU's leading scorer, was held to a season-low two points.
Jon Yeazel's career-high 13 points more than doubled his previous best of six at Dayton. Yeazel was 6-for-8 from the floor and one of his misses was a late three-point attempt.
Giordan Watson dished out six assists marking the 10th straight game he's dished out at least five assists. He needs 17 more helpers this season to move into CMU's single season top 10 list.
Sefton Barrett had a team-high string of six straight double-figure games come to an end.
Chris Kellermann's five three-pointers were the most by a Chippewa this season.