Central Michigan University Athletics
Central Michigan University
Ball State
Ball State Pulls Away to Defeat Central Michigan 83-65
1/10/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MUNCIE, Ind. - Central Michigan was outscored, 32-13, over the final 12-plus minutes Saturday in falling to Ball State, 83-65, in a Mid-American Conference men's basketball game.
The loss snapped a six-game CMU win streak, dropping the Chippewas to 11-2, 1-1 MAC. Ball State, which has won four straight, is 7-6, 2-0.
CMU entered the game as the early season surprise in the MAC, getting off to its best start in some four decades after winning just 10 games last season and 11 the season before. The win streak was the longest for the Chippewas in coach Keno Davis' three-year tenure.
"It's disappointing," Davis said, "but if anybody thought this year's team was going to be a 28-1 well-oiled machine, where we played great every game, I don't think even the most optimistic fan would think that.
"That doesn't make it excusable that we didn't execute, that we didn't play with the energy and the intensity that we've been playing with, but we'll take it for what it's worth and hopefully you'll see, with the character we have on this team, how they'll respond."
The Chippewas play host to Miami (Ohio) in their MAC home opener on Wednesday, then go to Akron next Saturday for another conference contest.
Zavier Turner made all four his three-point attempts en route to a game-high 21 points to lead Ball State, which made nine of its 18 triple tries (50 percent) and finished at 55.6 percent from the floor on the night.
Rayshawn Simmons scored 14 points and Chris Fowler added 13 for CMU, which finished 8-for-27 (29.6 percent) from three-point territory.
The Chippewas trailed, 43-36, at halftime, but surged to start the second half and three times took a one-point lead, the last at 52-51 on a Fowler three-point play with 13 minutes, 24 seconds remaining.
A Franko House short jumper at the 12:25 mark put Ball State back in front, 53-52, and ignited the 32-13 game-closing run.
After Fowler's three-point play, the Chippewas went ice cold and failed to convert a field goal for more than seven minutes. John Simons ended the drought with a three-pointer with 6:16 left, cutting the Chippewas' deficit to seven, 64-57.
But a Matt Kamieniecki layup 11 seconds later touched off an 8-0 Ball State run that upped the Cardinal lead to 15, 72-57, with just over three minutes remaining. CMU never got closer than 14 the rest of the way.
"We've got a lot of these conference games, we've got 18 conference games, so sitting at 1-1 after two road games isn't the worst place to be," Davis said. "We've just got to make sure that we clean up some of the things from today and don't see them again.
"I don't want to be that coach who never gives credit to the other team. Ball State played great. They are just as competitive as anybody. They've got a nice team.
"But for one reason or another, we just couldn't put it together. Some of it was youth, some is inexperience, some of it was just not being ready to play like you need to be in order to win on the road. If you're a more talented team, or on your home court, or you're facing an inferior opponent, you might be able to get away with some of that and win games, but we're not at that point yet.
"I know if anything, our guys will take this as much in a positive light as they can and come back even more focused next week."
