Men's Basketball Welcomes Mississippi Valley State On Sunday

Photo by: Benjamin Suddendorf

Men's Basketball Welcomes Mississippi Valley State On Sunday

11/8/2019 6:13:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Chippewas coming off 40-point victory in season opener

By: Nick Vuylsteke, CMUChippewas.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- The Central Michigan men's basketball team will play its second of four straight nonconference home games when it entertains Mississippi Valley State at McGuirk Arena on Sunday, Nov. 10 (2 p.m.).

CMU defeated UM-Dearborn, 102-62, on Wednesday in its season opener.

Last Time Out
Dallas Morgan led the Chippewas with a career-high 23 points against UM-Dearborn, while David DiLeo added 22. The pair combined to make 15 of their 22 field goal attempts. DiLeo hit five of his seven 3-point attempts.

In their Chippewa debuts, newcomers Devontae Lane and Travon Broadway Jr. led CMU in assists with six and five, respectively. Rob Montgomery led the Chippewas with nine rebounds.

Moving Up
On Tuesday, DiLeo upped his career point total to 1,163, which ranks 18^th in program history. His five 3-pointers gave him 258 for his career, which is third on CMU's all-time list.

Team Stats
As a team, the Chippewas shot 52.9 percent from the field, including a 44.4 percent mark from 3-point range, against the Wolverines.

The Chippewas forced 25 turnovers on Tuesday and committed just four. Eighteen of UM-Dearborn's turnovers were steals. Broadway, Lane and Deschon Winston combined for 10 of the 18 steals.

Team Camaraderie
The Chippewas used a 20-4 late-first-half run to put some distance between themselves and the Wolverines on Tuesday.

"I think the big theme is adjustments," DiLeo said. "When things didn't go our way with loose balls that we weren't coming up with in the beginning, no one put their head down. Whether we were missing shots, or making turnovers. We just kept together and stayed together. That's big going forward as we try to reach our goals. Through the ups and downs, we're together as a collective unit."

Coach Keno Davis
"I really like this team's attitude. You have certain teams that have an identity, and this team's identify has been a group that really wants to defend and work. That's not always easy to get a group of guys like that. It's easy to talk about your points and your scoring, but our guys in practice, they don't need the coaches telling them that we need to get better defensively. They want to be good defensively, and they talk about their defense as much as anything."

Scouting
The Delta Devils dropped their opener, 110-74, on Tuesday at Iowa State.

Senior guard Michael Green scored 22 points and added eight assists to lead Mississippi Valley. Junior Jordan Lyons had 10 rebounds.

The Delta Devils had 21 turnovers in the loss, with 15 of them coming from steals. They are scheduled to play on Friday at Utah.

Next
CMU will be at home on Saturday, Nov. 16 (2 p.m.) against Sam Houston State. The Bearkats opened the season with a 95-57 win over Paul Quinn, and are scheduled to play at Mississippi State on Friday, Nov. 8.