CMU Men Entertain Northern Illinois In Finale

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – The Central Michigan men's basketball team is set to entertain Northern Illinois on Friday (5 p.m.) in its regular-season finale.

The Chippewas are 7-15, 3-12 Mid-American Conference; NIU is 2-6, 1-12. CMU is in 10^th place in the 12-team and cannot finish among the top eight in the league and earn a berth to the league tournament in Cleveland next week.

Last Time Out
CMU knocked off MAC-leading Toledo, 81-79, on Tuesday at McGuirk Arena. The Chippewas trailed by 17 points in the second half and then rallied behind Caleb Huffman and Meikkel Murray.

Huffman scored 19 of his game-high 26 points in the second half, while Murray finished with 24 points, the final two of which came on a putback with 2.3 seconds to play and put the Chippewas in front to stay.

Upswing
Tuesday's win snapped an eight-game losing streak and was highly improbable, coming against a Toledo team that needed a win to clinch the outright MAC regular-season title and had already wrapped up the No. 1 seed for the league tournament. The Rockets, who are ranked eighth in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25, defeated the Chippewas, 89-72, on Jan. 19 in Toledo.

The victory was a major emotional lift for the Chippewas, who have been playing without leading scorer Travon Broadway Jr. and point guard Devontae Lane since the team returned on Feb. 23 from a 17-day COVID layoff.

The Chippewas had just eight healthy bodies available for the game and two fouled out. Four Chippewas – Huffman, Murray, Matt Beachler and PJ Mitchell – logged 35 or more minutes.

Junior Ralph Bissainthe had 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Chippewas. It was his second-consecutive double-double and his third as a Chippewa.

Trends
The Chippewas have averaged 81.6 points in their last three games and were quite competitive in the two losses leading up to the win over Toledo: An 85-73 loss at Buffalo and a 97-91 loss at Ball State.

Huffman, a 6-foot-4 junior guard in his first season at CMU after transferring from Iowa Western Community College, has averaged 24.6 points in his last three games. Murray has scored 24 points in each of his past two games on 20-of-32 shooting (62.5 percent).

Murray is making 52.1 percent of his field goal attempts on the season, good for eighth in the MAC.

Scouting
Northern Illinois has lost seven-consecutive games, a streak that began with a loss at Ball State on Jan. 16 and was interrupted by seven straight postponements. The Huskies are 0-9 in road games.

The Huskies rank last in the MAC in offense (61.4 points per game) and are 11^th in defense (77.6). the Chippewas are seventh in scoring (76.9) and 12^th defensively (79.8).

Sophomore Tyler Cochran leads the Huskies in both scoring (16.2 points per game) and rebounding (7.3). He had 19 points and 10 rebounds, his fourth career double-double, in the Huskies' 73-63 home loss to Western Michigan on Tuesday.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Matt Beachler

Ralph Bissainthe

Travon Broadway Jr.

Caleb Huffman

Devontae Lane

PJ Mitchell

Meikkel Murray

Central Michigan University Athletics