Central Michigan University
Ball State
Chippewa Men Fall at Ball State
1/17/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MUNCIE, Ind. - Good teams exploit an opponent's weaknesses.
Ball State outscored Central Michigan, 44-10, in the paint on Tuesday in posting a 98-83 victory over the Chippewas in a Mid-American Conference men's basketball at the Cardinals' Worthen Arena.
The Chippewas slipped to 11-7, 1-4 MAC. They play host to Miami (Ohio) on Saturday (1:30 p.m.) at McGuirk Arena. The RedHawks are 8-10, 1-4.
Marcus Keene, playing on injured ankle, scored 29 points, Braylon Rayson had 20, and David DiLeo added 14 for the Chippewas, who made a season-high 17 3-pointers.
Ball State had five players in double figures, led by 6-foot-9 sophomore Trey Moses, who scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.
CMU trailed, 48-43, at halftime and was within three, 62-59, with just over 10 minutes remaining. The Cardinals (12-6, 3-2) went on a 15-3 spurt, capped by two Franko House free throws with 6:18 left, to extend their lead to 15, 77-62.
The Chippewas never got closer than nine points the rest of the way.
Keene tied his career-high with eight triples, seven of which came in the first half when he scored 20 points.
"We've got to be able to react better and sometimes that's tough to do when you've got a lot of young guys," CMU coach Keno Davis said. "Ball State responded better. Hopefully we'll be able to learn from that and continue to get better. We're at a point right now where we have to get better in every area."
The Chippewas' first five MAC games have been against five of the upper-echelon teams in the league, including East Division-leading Akron and West-leading Eastern Michigan.
After Saturday's game against Miami, the Chippewas play Bowling Green at home next Tuesday.
"We knew that this was going to be a brutal start to the conference and that if we could come out with a winning record from it, we'd be in great shape," said Davis, whose team is 7-1 at home. "But being 1-4 in the league after your first five, although not ideal, it doesn't put us out of anything. It just puts us in a little bit of a hole and I know our guys are going to be looking forward to redeeming themselves and coming back to McGuirk Arena where we've had a great record and see if we can continue that."
The Chippewas made just 24.2 percent (8-for-33) of their second-half field goal attempts against the Cardinals, and Ball State finished with a 43-34 rebounding edge.
"When you shoot 24 percent it's tough to outrebound anybody," Davis said. "Some of our rebounding woes were magnified by the offensive inefficiency that we had."
