Central Michigan University
12-4 (1-2MAC)
Eastern Michigan
10-6 (1-2MAC)
Chippewa Men Battle, Fall At Eastern Michigan
1/9/2018 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
YPSILANTI, Mich. - Moments after watching his team battle down to the wire with a chance to tie or take the lead in the final minute, Central Michigan men's basketball coach Keno Davis struck a chord familiar to basketball coaches far and wide.
"It's one play here, one play there … all those little things when you think back when you lose a one-possession game," Davis said on Tuesday after his Chippewas fell, 79-74, to in a Mid-American Conference game to Eastern Michigan at the Eagles' Convocation Center. "When you win a one-possession game you don't remember those as clearly. Hopefully they're clear in our guys' minds and the idea for us is to keep getting better."
It was the Chippewas' second-straight loss as they slipped to 12-4, 1-2 MAC. Eastern is 10-6, 1-2. CMU returns to McGuirk Arena on Saturday (4:30 p.m.) to take on Toledo in a MAC game.
Cecil Williams scored a career-high 23 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead the Chippewas, who trailed by seven points with just over a minute to play before drawing to within two, 74-72, on a Kevin McKay three-point play with 58 seconds left.
Jordan Nobles hit a jumper with 29 seconds left to extend Eastern's lead to 76-72, and then Elijah Minnie made a steal-and-dunk nine seconds later to put it away. Minnie finished with a game-high 25 points.
McKay scored 15 points, while David DiLeo and Shawn Roundtree Jr. added 10 apiece for the Chippewas, who did just about everything they needed to do - including continuing their season-long torrid pace at the free throw line - to beat the Eagles' and their fit-inducing 2-3 zone defense.
The Chippewas, who entered the game as the nation's top free throw shooting team at 80.7 percent, made a blistering 25 of 27 charity tosses for a season-best 92.6 percent clip. They also battled the Eagles to a near dead heat (31-28 favor of EMU) in the rebounding department.
But CMU made just seven of its 25 3-point tries (28 percent) and were outscored in the paint, 46-28. They entered the game making 34 percent from long range.
"When you lead the country in free throws you'd better figure out a way to get to the free throw line and we did that again tonight," Davis said. "On a night when we only shoot seven for 25 from three, I felt that offensively we did a pretty good job attacking inside, maybe more than we ever have against Eastern Michigan."
James Thompson IV, a 6-foot-10 junior and one of the MAC's most difficult matchups, finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds for the Eagles, who made 53.4 percent (31 of 58) of their field goal attempts.
"We gave up 79 points tonight and we're not happy about that, but the last time we played them we gave up 109 on our court," Davis said. "We know we've improved as a team, we just want to speed up that learning process and get as good as we can as quickly as we can."
