Central Michigan University
Montana State
Keene's Career-Best Lifts CMU by Montana State
12/21/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
BOZEMAN, Mont. - Marcus Keene scored a career-high 44 points Wednesday as the Central Michigan men's basketball team held off Montana State, 106-103, in a nonconference game at the Bobcats' Worthington Arena.
Keene, who entered the game averaging an NCAA Division I-best 30.8 points per game, hit 13 of his 27 field goal attempts and was 13-for-17 from the free throw line. The Chippewas (9-3) finished 29-for-37 from the charity stripe.
"Obviously Marcus is going to get a lot of the headlines with the 44 points, but we had some guys come up with some big plays," CMU coach Keno Davis said.
One of those was Braylon Rayson, who scored all 16 of his points in the final 8:33. His layup with 5:19 remaining put the Chippewas in front for good, 79-78, and it touched off a 10-2 run that gave the Chippewas an 89-80 edge with under 3:40 to play.
"It says something about our team that in that stretch where we needed those big plays Marcus was getting the ball to Braylon," Davis said. "Marcus was gassed and Braylon was making those plays and getting to the basket. We know that Marcus puts up a lot of points every night, but we have other guys who can score and we're going to need that."
CMU bumped its lead to 10, 101-91, with just under a minute left. Montana State (5-8) surged to within 105-103 on a Tyler Hall 3-pointer with 8 seconds left. Keene hit a free throw with 3 seconds remaining and Hall's triple try at the buzzer missed.
"Even though they were making that big run, it just didn't look like we were panicking out there," Davis said. "I was panicking. The players looked pretty calm. I credit them for acting like a bunch of veterans out there when we know we've got a bunch of guys doing this for the first time."
Cecil Williams also had 16 points, a career high, for the Chippewas while David DiLeo had 11 and Luke Meyer added 10.
Keene led the Chippewas with nine rebounds and six assists. His previous career-best was a 40-point effort at Green Bay on Nov. 26. The nine rebounds was one off his career-best 10 he posted in the season opener against Indiana-Kokomo.
"You've got to credit Marcus not just for the points, but he goes and gets nine rebounds," Davis said. "That shows you that you don't have to be the biggest guy or the strongest guy out there to rebounds. We have to learn that."
Hall paced Montana State with 29 points and Benson Osayande added 21. The Bobcats held a 46-32 rebounding edge.
"Getting outrebounded by 14 isn't what our team is about," Davis said. "We've got to learn that as we come off of (Christmas) break. A little bit better about our positioning and how to play. It's nice to be able to learn when you're winning and this group is going in the right direction."
It marked the fourth time this season that the Chippewas (9-3) have eclipsed the 100-point plateau. CMU entered the game sixth in the nation in scoring at 90 points per game. Montana State's 103 points was a season-high for a CMU opponent.
CMU plays host to Chicago State on Friday, Dec. 30, in its final nonconference game of the season.
