Central Michigan University Athletics
Central Michigan University
Kent State
Central Michigan Drops Road Game to Kent State, 63-53
1/27/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
KENT, Ohio - Central Michigan suffered its worst shooting night of the season Tuesday as Kent State handed the Chippewas a 63-53 Mid-American Conference men's basketball loss at the Golden Flashes' Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center.
The loss dropped CMU to 14-4 overall, 4-3 MAC. The Chippewas are tied for first place in the MAC West with Western Michigan and Toledo. Kent State is 15-5 and leads the East at 6-1.
Devareaux Manley and Kris Brewer scored 16 points apiece and Jimmy Hall added 15 points and hauled down 15 rebounds to lead Kent, which held CMU to just four three-point field goals (on 23 attempts) and 33.9 percent shooting, both season-lows.
The Chippewas also finished 11-for-19 (57.9 percent) from the free throw line, and were outrebounded 43-25. They entered the game shooting 72.3 percent from the charity stripe.
"It was a night where obviously we were not able to shoot well from the floor, from the three or from the free throw line, and I think our lack of making our shots had something to do with the rebounding being as exaggerated as it was," CMU coach Keno Davis said.
Chris Fowler scored 15 points to lead the Chippewas, while John Simons and Braylon Rayson added 10 apiece. Simons led CMU with six rebounds.
"First you start by giving credit to Kent State," Davis said. "There's a reason they're in first place in the conference and going in on the road we knew that was going to be an uphill climb for us.
"We knew we had to gut out a win and they disrupted us with their physical play. And with the way the game was called, we didn't respond as well as we would have liked. Give our guys credit that they found a way to do with their defense, and that's something I didn't know I would say about our team coming into the season.
"On a night when our shots weren't falling, we hung in with the defense leading the way, which is a good sign for the future of our program. That shows how far we've come and how far we've come defensively. Our defense gave us an opportunity down the stretch. We just couldn't make shots, and it's tough to win when you can't make shots."
Kent State led by one, 24-23, at halftime then stretched its lead to as many as 15 points with just over 13 minutes to play. The Chippewas rallied, cutting the deficit to three, 48-45, on a Simons triple - his only three-pointer of the night - with 6:02 remaining.
But the Golden Flashes got three Brewer free throws and a layup by Gary Akbar to re-up their lead to eight, 53-45, and the Chippewas never got closer than six points the rest of the way.
CMU plays host to Ohio (7-11, 2-5) in a MAC game on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at McGuirk Arena.
