Chippewas Rout Northern Illinois 88-46, Register Largest MAC Win in School History

Saturday, February 14

Mount Pleasant, Mich.

5:00 PM

Central Michigan University

8-17,4-8MAC

Northern Illinois

8-16,3-9MAC

NIU

Central Mich.

Chippewas Travel to Eastern Michigan to Play Eagles on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

Sunday, February 15

Men Host Northern Illinois in Second Half of Saturday Basketball Doubleheader at 5 p.m.

Thursday, February 12

Louisiana Rallies Late, Wins MAC-SBC Challenge Contest Over Chippewas, 85-80

Saturday, February 07

Video Feature: Keenan Garner Steps Up for Chippewas

Friday, February 06

Next Event

Eastern Michigan

Feb 17 (Tue)

6:30 PM

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Team Stats

NIU

CMU

FG%

.273

.627

3FG%

.200

.636

FT%

.444

.700

STL

Jaxson Whitaker

/ Men's Basketball

Photo by: Sydney Kline '26 - @sydney.kline.photography

Chippewas Rout Northern Illinois 88-46, Register Largest MAC Win in School History

2/14/2026 8:15:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Hot starting Central Michigan builds 29-point halftime lead; shoots 62.7 percent from the floor; Jaxson Whitaker leads CMU with a career-high 19 points; Keenan Garner registers third career double-double.

By: Greg Hotchkiss

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich.—Central Michigan took control early in the game and built a 31-point first half lead in coasting to an 88-46 men's basketball victory over Northern Illinois on Saturday evening before 1,662 fans at McGuirk Arena.

The 42-point victory marked Central Michigan's largest-ever in its 52-year Mid-American Conference basketball history, surpassing two 35-point wins over Kent State (80-45 on Feb. 13, 1988) and Eastern Michigan (100-65 on Jan. 27, 2026).

Central Michigan held Northern Illinois to an opponent season-low 46 points and an opponent season-low 27.3 percent shooting percentage. It was the fewest points scored by a MAC opponent against Central Michigan since Western Michigan managed just 42 in a 69-42 win on Feb. 17, 2024. The Huskies made an opponent season-low 15 field goals in 55 attempts.

With the win, Central Michigan improves to 8-17 overall and 4-8 in MAC play. Northern Illinois drops to 8-16 overall and 3-9 in the MAC. Six regular season games remain for Central Michigan, which is currently in ninth place in the MAC standings, one game behind Buffalo in eighth place at 5-7. The top eight teams advance to the Mid-American Conference Tournament, March 12-14 in Cleveland.

Next up, Central Michigan travels to Ypsilanti, Mich. for a Tuesday night game at Eastern Michigan. Tipoff is at 6:30 p.m. ET.

The game marked the final men's basketball contest between Northern Illinois and Central Michigan before the Huskies depart the Mid-American Conference.

Four Chippewas reached double-figure scoring led by Jaxson Whitaker with a career-high 19 points. Starting in place of Logan McIntire, who did not play, Whitaker hit a career-high five 3-pointers and six field goals. Nathan Claerbaut finished with 16 points and 7-12 shooting in 27 minutes of action. Keenan Garner registered his third career double-double with 14 points and a game-high 11 rebounds, and Phat Phat Brooks contributed 10 points and five assists.

The win avenged a 74-73 loss at Northern Illinois, which CMU led by 19 points early in the second half.

"We don't play the scoreboard, we try to play every possession, one at a time," Central Michigan coach Andy Bronkema said. "The intensity, we talked about it at halftime. We wanted to play two halves the same way and we got that. We want to keep the intensity up, every possession and today we did that."

With McIntire out, Bronkema talked about the impacf of Whitaker's play.

"We've seen it before, we're proud of him," Bronkema said of Whitaker. "There are games left for him to continue to play like this. There was a stretch in there where he had to find himself."

"With Logan out, I knew I had to step into a little bit bigger role and knock down some shots," Whitaker said. "Offensively, we all played great and moved the ball well. It was great to get back at NIU after a sad loss against them in the first game."

"Going into halftime we knew we had a similar lead to when we first played them. We knew we had to come out in the second half and play well."

Central Michigan built its largest halftime lead of the year at 29 points with a 51-22 advantage. The Chippewas allowed just 22 points, the fewest allowed in a half this year (previous was 24 vs. Olivet in the first half. On offense, CMU was just as dominant as the Chippewas shot 73.3 percent (22-30) from the floor and a perfect 4-4 from 3-point range.

Central Michigan started out on fire as it converted its first six field goals to take a 14-2 lead at the 16:47 mark. CMU used a 7-0 run fueled by two Brooks layups and a Whitaker 3-pointer to go up 12-2. The Chippewas used another 7-0 run to go up 21-7 at the 13:19 mark as Whitaker hit a 3-pointer, Garner scored on a layup, and Mullen added a layup.

The Chippewas then put together a 12-0 run to take a commanding 33-12 lead at the 7:03 mark. Claerbaut started the run with a layup, Whitaker followed with two free throws, Garner added a layup, Adley threw down a dunk, Claerbaut and Adley finished off the run with jumpers.

CMU led by as many as 31 points with four seconds left in the first half and took its 29-point lead into halftime.

In the second half, Central Michigan held NIU to just 24 points.

"We were just doing all the things we practice on every day on defense," Garner said. "We put a lot of time in on our defense and we put a lot of pride in it. There was an increased emphasis on defense this week to get back to what we are doing after our two losses this week. We really tried to hone in on our principles and getting into our right spots. It showed tonight. We had a good defensive showing."

Central Michigan started Nathan Claerbaut at center, Keenan Garner at forward, Phat Phat Brooks, Tamario Adley, and Jaxson Whitaker at guards.

—CMU—