Central Michigan University
Toledo
Chippewas Will Play for MAC Title
3/13/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
Box Score | Purchase MAC Tournament Championship Tickets
CLEVELAND - Who really seriously thought, back in November, that this - this - was a legitimate possibility?
And yet, here it is: The Central Michigan men's basketball team will play for the Mid-American Conference championship on Saturday against Buffalo (7:30 p.m.) at Quicken Loans Arena.
At stake: The trophy, an NCAA Tournament berth, and the crowning jewel in a remarkable turnaround for a program that won just 21 games combined in the previous two seasons and was picked to finish second-to-last in the 12-team league in the preseason poll.
The Chippewas turned in an outstanding performance Friday night in downing Toledo, 75-66, in a semifinal game, improving to 23-7.
"You're looking a team that won just three conference games last year and came into this season with expectations that were low -- outside of Mount Pleasant, outside of our locker room," said Keno Davis who, in three years as CMU's coach, has taken the program from barely breathing to a regular-season league championship and a shot at the tourney title.
"If anything, I think the character of our team has stood out throughout the entire season," Davis said. "How hard this group works, how much we've improved, and how much we wanted to take advantage of an opportunity here in Cleveland.
"To come out and play, maybe, our best game of the year, our toughest on defense, and have the energy that we had is a credit to the players that we have who represent the maroon and gold."
A pre-game reception, including appetizers and a cash bar, is scheduled from 5:30-7 p.m. at Butcher & The Brewer, 2043 E. 4th St. in Cleveland.
Chris Fowler led the charge on Friday, scoring 26 points on 12-of-17 shooting and dishing out five assists. He committed just two turnovers as the Chippewas finished with just five on the night.
John Simons hit four of his eight three-point attempts and finished with 23 points for CMU, and Braylon Rayson had 14. Simons and Rayshawn Simmons finished with six rebounds apiece.
The Chippewas, the top seed in the tournament, have just one player on the roster, senior Austin Keel, who had ever played a MAC Tournament game in Cleveland.
Yet they displayed poise and never wavered from their game plan from the start, putting the Rockets in an early hole and never letting up.
CMU built a 33-26 halftime lead, then opened the second half with a 9-2 run to extend the advantage to 14, 42-28. The Rockets (20-13) trimmed their deficit to seven, 53-46, midway through the second half.
But Simons swooshed three free throws with 9:25 left to re-up the lead to 10, 56-46, and Toledo never got closer than eight the rest of the way.
"Coach always preaches, whether it's a win or loss, or an in-game situation, to never get too high or too low," Fowler said. "They're a great team, they're going to make runs. We're a great team, we're going to make runs.
"We know that if they're making a run, we never want to get too low. We're making a run, we never want to get too high. We want to stay even-keeled so we can execute the game plan for 40 minutes.
"We've put together some good halves of defense, but it was one of the better performances that we've had over 40 minutes that we've had all year."
Justin Drummond and J.D. Weatherspoon scored 17 points apiece to lead Toledo, while leading scorer Julius Brown finished with 13.
Toledo outrebounded the Chippewas, 38-27, but committed 12 turnovers to CMU's five.
"We said to beat Toledo we can't turn the ball over and to have only five turnovers in 40 minutes in a pretty up-and-down game says a lot about (our players)," Davis said. "Now it's going to be in a real short turnaround to be able to get that game plan in and see if we can execute (on Saturday) like we did tonight."
The Rockets defeated Eastern Michigan in a quarterfinal game on Thursday night, while the Chippewas had not played a game in a week, since their regular-season finale at Western Michigan.
The Chippewas played with energy from the opening tip, and never let off the gas.
"We play uptempo," Fowler said. "If you can't go deep into your bench it's going to hurt you, and they didn't go deep into their bench tonight.
"I don't think they were tired. We're young kids. We can play all day. We're used to playing all day. We were fortunate enough to get enough stops and enough scores to win the game."
Any concerns that CMU may have had about the relative youth and inexperience of the Chippewas responding under the bright lights of the league tournament were for naught.
"I think as a coach you worry, is the moment too big for these guys?" Davis said. "I know they want it and they're going to play as hard as they can. But sometimes you feel as a coach that you've got to be there before you can win.
"But I wouldn't say that about this group. Nothing would surprise me. We're going to come out (Saturday) and we're going to play as hard as we can. If we do that, win or lose, we're going to feel pretty good after 40 minutes."
They already feel pretty darned good after all they have accomplished this year. Now, they stand another good 40 minutes from doing what few outside of their own locker room thought possible.
"That's something that we've been working for all year," Simons said. "That's one of the goals that we set at the beginning of this year. We're one step closer to some of our end-of-the-year goals.
"We're happy with where we're at, but we're not satisfied with where we're at. (Saturday) we've got a pretty big game and so we'll come out with the same preparation and game plan that we do for each and every game and play, with the same energy that we bring to each and every game, and hopefully it'll take care of itself."
Tickets for Saturday's MAC Tournament championship game on now on sale, please click here to purchase.
