Saturday, February 26
Mount Pleasant, Mich.
7 p.m.
Central Michigan University
7-20,6-10MAC
71
vs
73
Kent State
19-9,14-4MAC
1
2
F
Kent St.
30
43
73
Central Mich.
31
40
71
CMU senior Cameron Healy scored a career-high 32 points on Saturday against Kent State.
Photo by: Jack Reeber '23,M'25 - @jackreeber.raw
MBB Drops Heartbreaker To Kent State
2/26/2022 10:30:00 PM | Men's Basketball
CMU faces critical game on Tuesday at home against Miami (Ohio)
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Close. Oh, so close.
The Central Michigan men's basketball team led for most of the night, only to see Kent State come up with the big bucket and then a defensive stop as time ran out on Saturday as the Golden Flashes handed the Chippewas a 73-71 heartbreaking Mid-American Conference defeat at McGuirk Arena.
"I was proud of the fight," CMU coach Tony Barbee said. "I thought we hung right in there, I thought we battled, I thought we fought. They were just a little better than us at the end of the day."
The Chippewas are 7-10, 6-10 MAC and still very much in the hunt for a league-tournament berth. CMU is seventh in the conference standings with two games to play. The top eight teams make it into the tournament.
CMU entertains eighth-place Miami (Ohio) on Tuesday, March 1 (7 p.m.) and then closes the regular season at Akron on Friday, March 4.
Cameron Healy scored a career-high 32 points to lead the Chippewas, who stood toe-to-toe in a physical, emotionally charged slugfest with a Kent State team that won its 10th straight game in improving to 19-9, 14-4.
The Chippewas and Golden Flashes seesawed down the stretch until Kent State's Sincere Carry scored on a drive and was fouled with 25 seconds to play. Carry, who scored 20 points, hit the free throw to put the Golden Flashes up, 73-71.
CMU had three shots, all from Ralph Bissainthe, in the final 12 seconds, but couldn't get one to fall.
"We're not going to win every game -- we'd like too," Barbee said, "but if we lose games, just like tonight, it's only because we didn't have more time on the clock. Not because we didn't fight.
"It's taken us a while over the course of the season to get to this point where they understand that when you fight you give yourself a chance to win every single game. You give yourself a chance to be in it."
Harrison Henderson finished with 16 points and Kevin Miller had 10 and eight assists for CMU.
Bissainthe grabbed nine rebounds. Kent State outboarded the Chippewas, 46-33, and outscored the Chippewas in the paint, 38-12. The Golden Flashes also scored 25 second-chance points to the Chippewas' five.
The Chippewas held the lead for most of the night thanks to their 11 3-pointers, their 16-for-21 performance at the free throw line, and the fact that they held the Golden Flashes to 39.1 percent shooting.
"I'm not accepting things that are unacceptable," Barbee said. "And lack of effort, lack of toughness, lack of attention to detail on the defensive end of the floor is where you win and lose games. It's taken us a while to get to that point and it's really come to the forefront since that long COVID pause (in January) that we had.
"The group of guys that we have are fighting their tails off for the full 40 minutes. Whether we lose the game or win the game, and they're doing it on the defensive end of the floor."
Healy matched his career high with seven 3-pointers on 15 attempts. He entered Saturday's game having made just seven of 37 triple tries in his last three games.
"Honestly I think it just came down to my preparation for the game today," said Healy, one of three seniors, along with Henderson and Bissainthe, who were honored in a pregame ceremony. "I took a lot of shots earlier in the day on the shooting machine. That just made me feel comfortable. I felt more confident today than normal and that's just preparation."
A win over Miami on Tuesday – CMU defeated the RedHawks in Oxford, Ohio, last week – would all but guarantee the Chippewas a spot in the league tournament.
Healy said that if the Chippewas get to Cleveland, they feel confident that they can hold their own. He pointed to the number of close games -- some wins, some losses -- the Chippewas have played over the past few weeks as evidence of that.
"We don't want to talk about moral victories, but you look at our track record and recent history and we've really competed with the top of the league," he said. "There is some optimism you can take from that, that we've been right there.
"We feel confident as a team, as a unit as we look forward to the conference tourney that we can take on anybody and be successful. Although we haven't (always won) those games, we've shown that we can do it."
The Central Michigan men's basketball team led for most of the night, only to see Kent State come up with the big bucket and then a defensive stop as time ran out on Saturday as the Golden Flashes handed the Chippewas a 73-71 heartbreaking Mid-American Conference defeat at McGuirk Arena.
"I was proud of the fight," CMU coach Tony Barbee said. "I thought we hung right in there, I thought we battled, I thought we fought. They were just a little better than us at the end of the day."
The Chippewas are 7-10, 6-10 MAC and still very much in the hunt for a league-tournament berth. CMU is seventh in the conference standings with two games to play. The top eight teams make it into the tournament.
CMU entertains eighth-place Miami (Ohio) on Tuesday, March 1 (7 p.m.) and then closes the regular season at Akron on Friday, March 4.
Cameron Healy scored a career-high 32 points to lead the Chippewas, who stood toe-to-toe in a physical, emotionally charged slugfest with a Kent State team that won its 10th straight game in improving to 19-9, 14-4.
The Chippewas and Golden Flashes seesawed down the stretch until Kent State's Sincere Carry scored on a drive and was fouled with 25 seconds to play. Carry, who scored 20 points, hit the free throw to put the Golden Flashes up, 73-71.
CMU had three shots, all from Ralph Bissainthe, in the final 12 seconds, but couldn't get one to fall.
"We're not going to win every game -- we'd like too," Barbee said, "but if we lose games, just like tonight, it's only because we didn't have more time on the clock. Not because we didn't fight.
"It's taken us a while over the course of the season to get to this point where they understand that when you fight you give yourself a chance to win every single game. You give yourself a chance to be in it."
Harrison Henderson finished with 16 points and Kevin Miller had 10 and eight assists for CMU.
Bissainthe grabbed nine rebounds. Kent State outboarded the Chippewas, 46-33, and outscored the Chippewas in the paint, 38-12. The Golden Flashes also scored 25 second-chance points to the Chippewas' five.
The Chippewas held the lead for most of the night thanks to their 11 3-pointers, their 16-for-21 performance at the free throw line, and the fact that they held the Golden Flashes to 39.1 percent shooting.
"I'm not accepting things that are unacceptable," Barbee said. "And lack of effort, lack of toughness, lack of attention to detail on the defensive end of the floor is where you win and lose games. It's taken us a while to get to that point and it's really come to the forefront since that long COVID pause (in January) that we had.
"The group of guys that we have are fighting their tails off for the full 40 minutes. Whether we lose the game or win the game, and they're doing it on the defensive end of the floor."
Healy matched his career high with seven 3-pointers on 15 attempts. He entered Saturday's game having made just seven of 37 triple tries in his last three games.
"Honestly I think it just came down to my preparation for the game today," said Healy, one of three seniors, along with Henderson and Bissainthe, who were honored in a pregame ceremony. "I took a lot of shots earlier in the day on the shooting machine. That just made me feel comfortable. I felt more confident today than normal and that's just preparation."
A win over Miami on Tuesday – CMU defeated the RedHawks in Oxford, Ohio, last week – would all but guarantee the Chippewas a spot in the league tournament.
Healy said that if the Chippewas get to Cleveland, they feel confident that they can hold their own. He pointed to the number of close games -- some wins, some losses -- the Chippewas have played over the past few weeks as evidence of that.
"We don't want to talk about moral victories, but you look at our track record and recent history and we've really competed with the top of the league," he said. "There is some optimism you can take from that, that we've been right there.
"We feel confident as a team, as a unit as we look forward to the conference tourney that we can take on anybody and be successful. Although we haven't (always won) those games, we've shown that we can do it."
Team Stats
KentSt
CMU
FG%
.391
.407
3FG%
.185
.407
FT%
.720
.762
RB
46
33
TO
9
11
STL
6
6
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
32
FGM
9
3FGM
7
FTM
7
Pts
16
FGM
5
3FGM
1
FTM
5
Pts
10
FGM
4
3FGM
1
FTM
1
Pts
7
FGM
2
3FGM
1
FTM
2
Players Mentioned
F
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