Chippewa Men Head To Robert Morris On Tuesday

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- The Central Michigan men's basketball team travels to Pittsburgh on Tuesday (7 p.m.) for a nonconference game with Robert Morris.

Last Time Out
The Chippewas are 7-4 and are coming off an 87-76 loss at Texas.

The Chippewas led, 42-36, at halftime but were outscored 51-34 in the final 20 minutes.

Team Stats
CMU is the No.2 scoring team in the nation, averaging 88.7 points per game. Eastern Washington leads the nation in scoring at 90 points per game.

CMU is shooting 45.6 percent from the field and 34.8 percent from 3-point range.

They are allowing 74.2 points per game, winning by an average of 14.5 points per game which is the 35^th-best scoring margin in the nation.

CMU is forcing 18.3 turnovers per game, with 10.5 of those turnovers coming off steals. The Chippewas are forcing 6.9 more turnovers per game than they are committing, and they rank fifth nationally in that category.

Individual Stats
Kevin McKay leads CMU in scoring and in rebounds. He's averaging 16.2 points per game off 65.9 percent shooting and 6.1 rebounds per game.

McKay ranks as No. 13 in the nation and is first among guards in the NCAA in field goal percentage, and he ranks sixth in the Mid-American Conference in scoring.

Devontae Lane leads CMU in assists with 46, averaging 4.2 per game. He ranks sixth in the MAC.

Scouting
Robert Morris is 3-8 and is coming off a 64-59 win over Florida Gulf Coast.

The Colonials are averaging 66.7 points per game and are allowing opponents to score 70.2 per.

The leading scorer is Josh Williams, who is averaging 12.7 points per game. He has made 35.8 percent of his 3-point attempts.

Dante Treacy leads Robert Morris in assists with 4.2 per game, and A.J. Braham is the Colonials' top rebounder at 8.1 per.

McKay's Progress
Heading into the season, McKay was looked at to be one of the Chippewas' leaders. In the last eight games, the 6-foot-5 senior from Warren has scored 15 or more points, including two games of 20 or more.

During that stretch, he has posted two double-doubles.

"I think it comes down to work ethic," CMU coach Keno Davis said. "Not just work ethic the last two weeks, or last two months, but after his freshman year, he was determined to outwork everybody.

"You might have seen that jump from freshman to sophomore year and thought 'that's nice, he's going to be a good player and help the team.' All of a sudden, he's one of the better players in the league."

Next
After Tuesday's game, the Chippewas will have the next 11 days off. They will head to West Lafayette, Ind. for a nonleague game against Purdue on Saturday, Dec. 28 (noon).

Purdue is 6-4 and on Sunday dropped a 70-56 Big Ten game to Nebraska, falling to 1-1 in league play. The Boilermakers are scheduled to play Ohio and then Butler in nonconference games before the play the Chippewas.

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Players Mentioned

Devontae Lane

Kevin McKay