Central Michigan University
Eastern Michigan
Eagles Spoil CMU Senior Night
2/28/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - Braylon Rayson has provided an awful lot of memories on John G. Kulhavi court at McGuirk Arena.
The senior's final home game, and very likely the Chippewas' last of the season, is one he would just as soon forget.
Rayson scored 27 points and Marcus Keene added 21, but CMU needed more, a lot more, as it fell to hot-shooting Eastern Michigan, 109-81, on Senior Night at McGuirk.
CMU has lost six straight games and is 16-14, 6-11 MAC. Eastern Michigan, which had lost seven consecutive games before beating Northern Illinois on Saturday, is 15-15, 7-10.
"We looked tired, we looked physically and mentally tired," CMU coach Keno Davis said. "When you have a game like this your confidence takes a hit. We've shown the ability to be a really good team at times this year and we need to get back to that in a hurry."
Eastern Michigan made 10 of its 16 first-half 3-point attempts and Ray Lee scored an EMU-record 50 points. The Eagles' stretched their lead to double digits, 22-10, at the 13-minute mark of the first half and the Chippewas never mounted a serious charge.
Eastern led, 54-29, at halftime and its lead reached as many as 43 points in the second half.
"Our defense in the first half obviously wasn't the best, but I don't know how many threes they made with a hand in their face and just got unbelievable confidence from there," Davis said. "I'll take this on me. We need to make sure that we're fresh."
CMU closes the regular season on Friday at rival Western Michigan. Regardless of Friday's outcome, the Chippewas will almost surely have to go on the road to open the MAC Tournament on Monday.
"Obviously that's what you want to do at the end of the season, and that's not the way we've looked for stretches here," Davis said. "We'll try to get them fresh by the time we play Western, let them get their legs back."
Lee, a 6-foot-3 senior guard, broke Gary Tyson's EMU record of 47 points set in a 1974 game against Wheaton. He made 17 of his 26 field goal attempts including 10 of 16 from 3-point range. Lee's point total was also a McGuirk Arena standard for a visiting player, surpassing the record 32 he scored last season.
It was the final home game for Rayson along with fellow seniors Blake Hibbitts, Cole Israelson and Tanner Beachnau.
"These seniors, the amount of time they have put in with Braylon for four years, Blake for five years, and Tanner, Cole, being here from the start," Davis said. "They were a part of something special, of a program that had a lot of work to do to able to compete for championships and to be successful.
"But more importantly for our seniors, they have represented our school in the highest fashion. Been very proud to have been their coach, and I look forward to following their careers in and out of basketball in the future.
"It's difficult to see them leave. We've been through a lot together. Blake's been here as long as I have, Braylon almost as long. It's not the way you want their Senior Night to finish, but I also know they've got a lot of bright spots that they can look back on in their CMU careers and remember the championships and the career games they had, and the packed houses and those types of things."
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