Central Michigan University Athletics
Tuesday, January 3
Mount Pleasant, Mich.
7 p.m.
Central Michigan University
68
vs
56
Miami (Ohio)
Photo by: Jack Reeber '23,M'25 - @jackreeber.raw
Men's Basketball Opens MAC Play With 68-56 Win Over Miami (Ohio)
1/3/2023 10:56:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Chippewas win MAC opener after overcoming deficit with 8-0 run down the stretch; Jesse Zarzuela scores team-high 19 points, Brian Taylor finishes with 16; Markus Harding adds 13 points and nine rebounds.
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich.—Coming off a signature win at Michigan, the Central Michigan men's basketball team used an 8-0 run down the stretch to notch a 68-56 come-from-behind victory over Miami (Ohio) in its Mid-American Conference opener Tuesday evening at McGuirk Arena.
Trailing 52-50 with 2:54 to play, Central Michigan responded with its back-breaking 8-0 run to take control of the contest. Sophomore Markus Harding swished a 3-pointer in the corner to give CMU its first lead since the opening minutes of the game, 53-52. Senior Brian Taylor's jumper put CMU up 55-52 with 1:35 to play, then Harding drew a foul and added a free throw. After CMU's defense forced a Miami miss, Taylor grabbed the rebound, was fouled, and converted two free throws to give the Chippewas a 58-52 lead with 41 seconds to play. The Chippewas coasted the rest of the way and widened the victory margin by hitting 10 free throws in the final 24 seconds.
"We were able to execute down the stretch," Central Michigan Head Coach Tony Barbee said. "These games are going to be these nip-and-tuck, anybody can win, time of possession games. Tonight, it was who is going to be tough-minded on the defensive end of the floor and we ended up giving up one shot down the stretch. We forced them into shots they didn't want. I also thought we really executed down the stretch and got great shots—even if they didn't go in—for those last four minutes."
Junior Jesse Zarzuela led Central Michigan with a team-high 19 points on a perfect 13 of 13 free throw shooting performance. Taylor scored 16 points on 6-13 field goals and added seven rebounds, and Harding scored 13 points, tied a career-high with two 3-pointers, and tied a career-high with nine rebounds.
It was a tough, rugged and gritty performance by the Chippewas, who outrebounded Miami by 13 boards (48-35), held the Redhawks to just 33.9 percent (20-59) field goal shooting, and 19.2 percent (5-26) 3-point shooting. Most importantly, Miami was held to just one field goal in the game's final 2:54.
"Across the board, it was good to see another dominating rebounding performance for us," Barbee said. "Think about how many 50-50 balls they got in the second half and how big of a margin that could have been."
"It's always a challenge, especially when you're as young as we are," Barbee said. "Because of our youth, I expected us to not be as sharp and as ready to go as we were at Michigan. I'm just glad we showed some grittiness and fight and recognized that we weren't at the level we played at against Michigan. We knew it was going to be a dogfight. We made a lot of mistakes, but we were able to get some stops in the second half, but at the end of the day we fought back. If you're going to have a chance in the league, you have to find a way and take care of your home court. We did that tonight."
Central Michigan trailed for the majority of the game. Miami quickly took a 34-26 lead two minutes into the second half on an Anderson Mirambeaux layup and Mekhi Lairy 3-pointer, but it was clear Central Michigan was going to be in it until the end as the Chippewas answered with seven of the next nine points to pull within two points at 35-33 with 15:40 to play. Later, Zarzuela tied the game at 35-35 with a long two-pointer from the corner with 15:10 to play.
The Chippewas had to erase a five-point deficit (47-42) with 9:29 to play. Harding swished a 3-pointer and then scored on an offensive rebound putback to tie the game at 47-47 with 8:19 to go, but Miami's Kamari Williams buried a 3-pointer to give the Redhawks a 50-47 lead at the 7:58 mark. Bass hit Taylor for a backdoor layup to tie the game at 50-50 with 4:12 to play.
Central Michigan improves to 1-0 in MAC play and 6-8 overall, while Miami (Ohio) drops to 0-1 in league play and 6-8 overall.
Miami was led by Morgan Safford, who scored a game-high 20 points on 7-14 shooting and 3-8 3-point shooting, while Mirambeaux finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
Barbee singled out several of his players including Ola Ajiboye, Harding, and Zarzuela.
"What Ola does is a skill," Barbee said. "How hard he plays, how tenacious he plays. Ola made a huge impact on the game. Markus didn't have his best outing, I'm just glad after he missed a couple shots, that he found a way to throw a few in because we came right back to him. Jesse got some free throws late. I challenged Jesse, I challenged Reggie (Bass). Those guys are great free throw shooters and the easiest way to score is to get to the line. We were settling for too many bad, long contested shots. Find a way to get to the foul line. Jesse played big."
Central Michigan is back in action on Saturday when it travels to Ypsilanti to take on Eastern Michigan in its second conference game. Tipoff is at 2 p.m. at EMU"s George Gervin GameAbove Center.
Trailing 52-50 with 2:54 to play, Central Michigan responded with its back-breaking 8-0 run to take control of the contest. Sophomore Markus Harding swished a 3-pointer in the corner to give CMU its first lead since the opening minutes of the game, 53-52. Senior Brian Taylor's jumper put CMU up 55-52 with 1:35 to play, then Harding drew a foul and added a free throw. After CMU's defense forced a Miami miss, Taylor grabbed the rebound, was fouled, and converted two free throws to give the Chippewas a 58-52 lead with 41 seconds to play. The Chippewas coasted the rest of the way and widened the victory margin by hitting 10 free throws in the final 24 seconds.
"We were able to execute down the stretch," Central Michigan Head Coach Tony Barbee said. "These games are going to be these nip-and-tuck, anybody can win, time of possession games. Tonight, it was who is going to be tough-minded on the defensive end of the floor and we ended up giving up one shot down the stretch. We forced them into shots they didn't want. I also thought we really executed down the stretch and got great shots—even if they didn't go in—for those last four minutes."
Junior Jesse Zarzuela led Central Michigan with a team-high 19 points on a perfect 13 of 13 free throw shooting performance. Taylor scored 16 points on 6-13 field goals and added seven rebounds, and Harding scored 13 points, tied a career-high with two 3-pointers, and tied a career-high with nine rebounds.
It was a tough, rugged and gritty performance by the Chippewas, who outrebounded Miami by 13 boards (48-35), held the Redhawks to just 33.9 percent (20-59) field goal shooting, and 19.2 percent (5-26) 3-point shooting. Most importantly, Miami was held to just one field goal in the game's final 2:54.
"Across the board, it was good to see another dominating rebounding performance for us," Barbee said. "Think about how many 50-50 balls they got in the second half and how big of a margin that could have been."
"It's always a challenge, especially when you're as young as we are," Barbee said. "Because of our youth, I expected us to not be as sharp and as ready to go as we were at Michigan. I'm just glad we showed some grittiness and fight and recognized that we weren't at the level we played at against Michigan. We knew it was going to be a dogfight. We made a lot of mistakes, but we were able to get some stops in the second half, but at the end of the day we fought back. If you're going to have a chance in the league, you have to find a way and take care of your home court. We did that tonight."
Central Michigan trailed for the majority of the game. Miami quickly took a 34-26 lead two minutes into the second half on an Anderson Mirambeaux layup and Mekhi Lairy 3-pointer, but it was clear Central Michigan was going to be in it until the end as the Chippewas answered with seven of the next nine points to pull within two points at 35-33 with 15:40 to play. Later, Zarzuela tied the game at 35-35 with a long two-pointer from the corner with 15:10 to play.
The Chippewas had to erase a five-point deficit (47-42) with 9:29 to play. Harding swished a 3-pointer and then scored on an offensive rebound putback to tie the game at 47-47 with 8:19 to go, but Miami's Kamari Williams buried a 3-pointer to give the Redhawks a 50-47 lead at the 7:58 mark. Bass hit Taylor for a backdoor layup to tie the game at 50-50 with 4:12 to play.
Central Michigan improves to 1-0 in MAC play and 6-8 overall, while Miami (Ohio) drops to 0-1 in league play and 6-8 overall.
Miami was led by Morgan Safford, who scored a game-high 20 points on 7-14 shooting and 3-8 3-point shooting, while Mirambeaux finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
Barbee singled out several of his players including Ola Ajiboye, Harding, and Zarzuela.
"What Ola does is a skill," Barbee said. "How hard he plays, how tenacious he plays. Ola made a huge impact on the game. Markus didn't have his best outing, I'm just glad after he missed a couple shots, that he found a way to throw a few in because we came right back to him. Jesse got some free throws late. I challenged Jesse, I challenged Reggie (Bass). Those guys are great free throw shooters and the easiest way to score is to get to the line. We were settling for too many bad, long contested shots. Find a way to get to the foul line. Jesse played big."
Central Michigan is back in action on Saturday when it travels to Ypsilanti to take on Eastern Michigan in its second conference game. Tipoff is at 2 p.m. at EMU"s George Gervin GameAbove Center.
—CMU—
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