Short-handed Chippewas Fall To Miami

Tuesday, February 23

Mount Pleasant, Mich.

5 p.m.

Central Michigan University

6-13,2-10MAC

Miami (Ohio)

10-9,7-7MAC

Miami (OH)

Central Mich.

Photo by: Jack Reeber '23,M'25 - @jackreeber.raw

2/23/2021 8:23:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – It was apparent, relatively early, that it was not going to be Central Michigan's night.

Yet just to be on the court playing a game was a victory in and of itself.

"I don't know that I've been more proud of our team than I was tonight," Chippewa men's basketball coach Keno Davis said after his team fell, 96-54, to Miami (Ohio) in a Mid-American Conference game on Tuesday at McGuirk Arena.

Considering the circumstances, Davis had every right to be proud. The Chippewas had not played in 17 days and they dressed just nine players, one of whom is a walk-on on loan from the CMU baseball program.

Two of the Chippewas who did not play were starting point guard Devontae Lane and leading scorer Travon Broadway Jr. Several others who have logged significant minutes – and even started at times this season – also sat out.

Dae Dae Grant hit seven triples en route to a game-high 25 points to lead the RedHawks, 10-9, 7-7, who won their second in a row. Miami hit 18 triples, making 51.4 percent of its 3-point tries.

What Davis and so many others have seen throughout the season from other teams across the country dealing with COVID-related shutdowns was up close and personal on Tuesday. The Chippewas did not have their legs or their wind, the result of limited practices with limited personal over the past 2 ½ weeks.

"It's a tough thing for anybody to go through, a game like that," Davis said. "But you understand why it happened and not a whole lot you can do about it other than try to get better and use it as a learning experience and try to work even harder and get better."

Meikkel Murray scored 16 points, Ralph Bissainthe had 14, and Caleb Huffman added 13 to lead CMU, which is scheduled to go to Buffalo on Thursday (2 p.m.) and to Ball State on Saturday (1 p.m.).

"You try to come up with what is the best idea as far as how much physical activity can you do when you're playing three games in five days," Davis said. "That's not ideal."

"It would be great to condition, it would be great to work on our execution and everything like that, but part of the reason we didn't do any more than we did (before Tuesday's game) is because if one guy got injured, we wouldn't even be able to play the games. It's a little bit tough for coaches to make that decision of how much do you actually do in practice.

"If we can get some improvement from these guys, I really like what the program can be next season, but it's our job right now to see what it can be this year in the games that we have remaining. I don't want to look too far ahead, but we want to put as competitive team as we can out there for the next couple games on the road."

Junior guard Matt Beachler fully acknowledged how difficult the journey has been, and likely will continue to be, for the Chippewas.

"A lot of people are out of shape, we really haven't had a lot of reps, haven't been able to play five-on-five for a while and we understand that," he said. "Ultimately other teams have done it too and we've got to come together and play some viable basketball here.

"I think we're very fortunate to be able to play college basketball and I think we're very fortunate that this season went on."

Said Davis: "Being able to play this season is a real benefit for all the players involved. Whether you're winning games or losing games, you're getting an opportunity to play the game of basketball and having that taken away from our guys through the summer and the fall, I think their mental well-being is better served when they're able to play the sport that they love. Hopefully we're able to get a couple more bodies so that we can be more competitive."