MBB Can't Complete Comeback, Falls To Eastern

Tuesday, February 15

Mount Pleasant, Mich.

7 p.m.

Central Michigan University

6-17,5-7MAC

Eastern Michigan

9-16,4-10MAC

Eastern Mich.

Central Mich.

Photo by: Keara Chaperon '22

2/15/2022 10:24:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – A sluggish start forced Central Michigan to play catchup and, in the end, the Chippewas didn't have quite enough.

Eastern Michigan made nine 3-pointers and took advantage of the cold-shooting Chippewas on Tuesday in handing CMU a 75-70 loss in a Mid-American Conference men's basketball game at McGuirk Arena.

The Chippewas are 6-17, 5-7 MAC and face the daunting task of playing their next three games on the road, including stops at Ohio and at Toledo, the MAC's first- and second-place teams, respectively.

"It's going to be a tough finish to the season," said CMU coach Tony Barbee, whose team sits in seventh place in the league and needs a top-eight finish to reach the league tournament in Cleveland. "Of our remaining six games … four are on the road. We're going to have to be road warriors and find a way to make it to Cleveland."

Tuesday's game played out for CMU similarly to its 77-63 loss at Western Michigan on Saturday. The Chippewas never led and found themselves down 15 points early in the second half.

CMU, which made just two of its first 14 3-point tries, hung in and drew to within three points twice in the final 29 seconds, getting three triples in the final 1:11.

But Eastern Michigan (9-16, 4-10) hit all six of its free throw attempts in the final 32 seconds to keep the Chippewas at bay.

"This is two games in a row where we got off to a sluggish start in terms of our effort, our energy," Barbee said. "They were playing harder; they were playing tougher than us to start the game.

"Then in the second half, in this game and the last game, we got a sense of desperation, a sense of urgency, and we played harder than them. We've got to put two halves together. We've played one half in (each of) the last two games and that's not good enough in this league."

Kevin Miller scored 23 points, Harrison Henderson had 14, and Cameron Healy had 12 to lead CMU, which finished 6-for-20 from 3-point range. The Chippewas made just 41.7 percent of their field goal attempts overall.

Noah Farrakhan scored 24 points to lead the Eagles, who entered the game as the MAC's worst 3-point shooting team percentage wise but finished 9-for-24 (37.5 percent) from deep. The nine triples tied for their second-highest total this season.

"When they got open 3's they made them, and when we got open 3's we missed them," Barbee said. "That's the bottom line. It's a miss or make game. We were getting good looks in the post, we were getting good looks from 3; we've got to be able to make them."