Chippewa Men Drop Finale In Miami

Wednesday, December 2

Miami, Fla.

7 p.m.

Central Michigan University

0-3,0-0MAC

Flagler College

1-1,0-0Peach Belt

Flagler

Central Mich.

Guard Devontae Lane scored 12 points, one of four Chippewas in double figures, on Wednesday in the Chippewas' loss to Flagler.

Photo by: FIU Athletics

12/2/2020 9:31:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

CMU returns to the court on Sunday at Western Illinois

By: Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

MIAMI – The Central Michigan men's basketball team was outscored, 60-22, in the paint on Wednesday in closing its two-game trip to Florida with a 92-73 loss to Flagler at the Ocean Bank Convocation Center.

The Chippewas (0-3), who fell to Florida International, 96-76, on Tuesday, head to Western Illinois on Sunday, Dec. 6 (3:30 p.m.).

How It Happened
Flagler, a Division II school in St. Augustine, Fla., outscored the Chippewas 26-10 in a 10-minute span, beginning with five minutes to play in the first half and ending at about the five-minute mark of the second, in building a comfortable 56-35 advantage.

The Chippewas never got closer than 16 points the rest of the way.

Chris Metzger, a 6-foot-7 senior, scored 26 points on 13-of-15 shooting to lead the Saints.

Leaders
Travon Broadway Jr. scored 17 points to lead CMU, while Matt Beachler added 13, and Devontae Lane and Caleb Huffman had 12 apiece. Broadway, a Miami native, scored a career-high 19 points against FIU on Tuesday.

Broadway and 6-10 freshman Aundre Polk had six rebounds apiece to lead the Chippewas, who made a season-best nine 3-pointers but shot 40 percent from the field overall and 66.7 percent from the free throw line.

Tough Turnaround
CMU, which features seven newcomers and with few veterans on the roster, faced two solid opponents in a 24-hour span on the trip. Flagler was playing on five days of rest.

"I feel bad that I put our guys in a tough position to have a back-to-back game against a really good opponent that has fresh legs and yet with this young team we've got to learn on the fly," CMU coach Keno Davis said. "I'm hopeful that this experience, coming down here, exposed some weaknesses – we had some guys playing different roles because of the injuries – but we need to try to get better quickly.

"We've got to get better, we've got to get healthy, and we've got to do it in a hurry."

After their game at Western Illinois on Sunday, the Chippewas are scheduled to face Valparaiso in their home opener on Dec. 12. They are then slated to make trips to Western Michigan (Dec. 18) and Eastern Michigan (Dec. 22) to open the Mid-American Conference schedule.

"You want to win every time you step on the court," Davis said. "You want to build confidence, but in the large scope of things you want to get better for the MAC season and hopefully this is helping us prepare."

Focus Forward
Davis said that consistency and toughness are among the points of emphasis moving forward as the Chippewas look to assimilate their newcomers with veterans such as Broadway, Lane and Beachler.

Malik Muhammad, a 6-9, 235-pound junior center transfer from East Los Angeles College, has yet to make an appearance with the Chippewas because of injury.

"We've got plenty of talent to be a tough team offensively and defensively, we've just got to figure some things out," Davis said. "I think we need to be more physical, make tough plays, be a little tougher going to the basket. We've got to be able to do that for 40 minutes.

"We'll address those factors over the next couple of days and then hopefully we'll be a different team the next time we step on the court. There's no reason that we can't be a good team; we've got enough talent. We've just got to learn in a hurry and get some repetitions in practice and not get too down on ourselves that we didn't play well down here this week."