Central Michigan University Athletics
Chippewas Seek to Avoid Letdown on Friday
12/18/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - Avoiding an emotional letdown and finishing 2014 strong are the top priorities for the Central Michigan men's basketball team.
The Chippewas, who knocked off Northwestern, 80-67, on Wednesday for the program's first win over a Big Ten opponent since 2007, play host to NAIA Concordia on Friday at McGuirk Arena. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
"We talked going into the season that we needed to have great effort each and every night regardless of the opponent," CMU coach Keno Davis said. "For us to have a successful year, a successful program, you've got to see the same intensity every night."
CMU goes to McNeese State (5-3) on Monday then takes a 10-day break. The Chippewas return to action on Jan. 2 at home against Central Penn before going to Toledo on Jan. 6 for the Mid-American Conference opener.
The Chippewas are 7-1 for the first time since 1974-75.
Concordia, which is located in Ann Arbor, is 8-4 overall, 7-1 in the Wolverine Hoosier Athletic Conference. The Cardinals have won eight consecutive games.
"You're talking about a group with Concordia that's coming in and they've got the mindset that we had going on the road (Wednesday) to a Big Ten opponent," Davis said. "This is a big game for them. They'll play us and then they'll play Eastern (Michigan on Dec. 28) and it's a chance to beat a Division I opponent. They're going to come in and play as hard as they can so we've got to make sure there's not any letdown from us regardless of who we're playing because we're trying to play at our very best each and every night."
A pair of 6-foot-2 senior guards, Andrew Patrick and Josh Fugate, are the Cardinals' top scorers at 16.5 and 15.0 points per game, respectively.
Braylon Rayson scored 19 points as four Chippewas scored in double figures in Wednesday's win at Northwestern. Luke Meyer, a 6-foot-11 freshman center, scored a career-high 18, while junior guard Rayshawn Simmons also notched his career-high with 13.
Two of the factors that Davis pointed to in the Northwestern win that bode well for CMU is, one, the fact that they outrebounded the Wildcats, 31-26, yet CMU's leading rebounder had just five; and, two, second-leading scorer John Simons scored just one point, going 0-for-3 from the floor.
Simons entered the game averaging 12.5 points per game and making a best-in-the-nation 60.5 percent of his three-point field goal attempts.
"It really was a team victory for us," Davis said. "We knew that rebounding was going to be at a premium and that it was going to be a battle on the boards. If you had told me that John Simons would come up with those numbers and our leading rebounder would have five rebounds and that we'd outrebound them by five, I would have known that we had, from top to bottom, incredible effort and focus for what we needed to do.
"I think that's probably the most enjoyable thing. It really isn't just one player that's having a career game for you to win a game like that, but that the entire team is clicking on all cylinders.
"To be able to beat a Big Ten opponent in their facility with their crowd there is something that the players looked forward to and hopefully this makes them want to work even harder to go for bigger and better things."
