Men's Basketball Defeats Saginaw Valley State 77-56 in Exhibition Game

Friday, October 24

Mount Pleasant, Mich.

7:00 PM

Central Michigan University

0-0,0-0MAC

Saginaw Valley State (Exh.)

0-0,0-0GLIAC

Saginaw Valley

Central Mich.

Men's Basketball Hosts Saginaw Valley State for Friday Night Exhibition Game

Thursday, October 23

Preseason Media Day: Shiny and New- Bronkema Introduces Chippewa Men

Tuesday, October 21

Central Michigan Announces Entire 2025-26 Men's Basketball Schedule

Thursday, August 21

MAC SBC Challenge Men's Graphic for Header

Men's Basketball to Host Appalachian State in MAC-SBC Challenge

Tuesday, July 01

Next Event

Appalachian State

Nov 3 (Mon)

7:00 PM

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Full Schedule

Team Stats

CMU

FG%

.385

.426

3FG%

.300

.238

FT%

.625

.583

STL

Jaxson Whitaker

/ Men's Basketball

Photo by: Clayton Kuiper '26

Men's Basketball Defeats Saginaw Valley State 77-56 in Exhibition Game

10/24/2025 10:12:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Chippewas catch fire midway through first half; Four Chippewas reach double figure scoring led by Jaxson Whitaker’s 16 points, Chippewas outrebound Cardinals 48-31.

By: Greg Hotchkiss

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich.—Central Michigan outscored Saginaw Valley State 26-9 over a 10-minute span and built a 17-point first half lead, then coasted to a 77-56 exhibition win Friday evening at McGuirk Arena. With the matchup, fans received their first glimpse of the 2025-26 Central Michigan men's basketball team.

Sophomore Jaxson Whitaker hit 4-4 3-pointers and scored 12 of his 16 points in the first half, senior Nathan Claerbaut finished with 14 points and six rebounds, sophomore Will Ashford scored 12 points, dished out three assists and added five rebounds, and senior Tamario Adley added 12 points. Senior Nick Mullen grabbed seven rebounds, blocked three shots and added three steals. Sophomore Keenan Garner led the Chippewas with eight rebounds.

The Chippewas outrebounded the Cardinals 48-31 and held SVSU to 33.3 percent (9-27) shooting in the first half.

Head Coach Andy Bronkema played 13 players in the game and 10 played at least 10 or minutes.

"Our identity is forming and we're establishing a culture with a new group of guys," Bronkema said. "Our identity is unselfishness and being a star in our own personal role and how that role fits into the system and the team. There are so many things that are important to identify with. The most important thing is that we continue to improve. We want to see constant growth."

"With these exhibition games, we're trying to look at everyone on the roster what they can give you. We've got a full team so we've got to plan ahead of time and give people opportunities."

Central Michigan built a 40-23 halftime lead after outscoring Saginaw Valley State 26-9 over the half's final 10 minutes. Whitaker led the Chippewas with 13 points while hitting 3-3 3-pointers in the first half and Adley added 12 points.

Central Michigan started slowly on offense as it hit just one of their first 15 field goal attempts. In the low post, Claerbaut scored seven of CMU's first 11 points but Saginaw Valley built a 14-11 lead with 11:04 to go in the first half.

At that point, the Chippewas suddenly caught fire. A 3-pointer by Jaxson Whitaker tied the game at 14-14, then Adley backed down a defender and scored on a turnaround jumper to give Central Michigan its first lead of the game, 16-14, at the 8:56 mark.

SVSU's Marquese Josephs followed with a 3-pointer to give the lead back to the Cardinals, 17-16 with 7:59 to play. But Whitaker responded as he swished another 3-pointer for a 19-17 lead with 7:26 to go, Nick Mullen then stole the ball out of a timeout and went down and scored to put CMU up 21-17. Whitaker followed with another 3-pointer for a 24-19 lead, then scored on a driving layup for a 26-19 advantage.

Adley gave CMU a 29-19 lead with a driving layup at the 3:47 mark. It marked the largest CMU lead of the game up until that point.

In the second half, Central Michigan expanded its lead to as many as 26 points, 69-43, with 8:26 to play.

Saginaw Valley State is coached by former Central Michigan star Chris Fowler. During pre-game, Central Michigan honored Fowler with a video of his highlights as a Chippewa. Before the game, the program hosted an Alumni Game where over 20 former players, coaches and managers attended.

"This was a very special day for me," Bronkema said. "We had 22 alumni players come back and play in the alumni game. It was great to have Chris Fowler back tonight. It was great to connect with people who were here before me. What a beautiful day. The video they put together for Chris was sweet, just so many positives today. The crowd was impressive for an exhibition game. Hopefully they saw a team that worked together."

"We want to build a program that unites all the passions. Every generation has a story, a passion, the city has a view and their passion, the university and so on. We want to combine them all and unite the passions."

The Chippewas started guards Tamario Adley, Will Ashford, and Logan McIntire, forward Keenan Garner, and center Nathan Claerbaut.

Central Michigan opens its 2025-26 season on Monday, Nov. 3 when it hosts Appalachian State in the MAC/SBC Challenge at 7 p.m. at McGuirk Arena.

—CMU—