Chips capture MAC Championship

• Tweet
• 

A win, fans storming the court, a conference championship and history being made.
The CMU men’s basketball team accomplished the improbable with a 71-62 win
over Northern Illinois Mar. 3.
The win, along with Akron’s 76-68 win over Kent State clinched the Mid-American
Conference regular season championship for the Chippewas.
In winning the title, Central became the first ever school in MAC history to finish
first one year after finishing last the previous year.
The win gave the Chippewas a 20-7 overall regular season mark and a 14-4 mark
in MAC play.
“We did it,” Head Coach Jay Smith said. “I told you we would celebrate
at the end when it was all said and done. We found the way to win and we did it.
It’s a great feeling and I can’t put into words how I feel.”
The Huskies wouldn’t let the Chippewas walk away with the game and played
inspired in the first half.
Neither team could build a sizable lead as Central led by as many as four and
Northern Illinois by as many as five points.
However, it would be the Huskies who would take the halftime lead, 29-27 on a
buzzer-beating layup by Matt Nelson.
Chad Pleiness and David Webber led the Chippewa scoring attack with a game-high
19 points each. Pleiness also added a game-high nine rebounds.
Mike Manciel was the other double-digit scorer with 13 points, while Tim Kisner
added a career-high 13 assists.
The second half continued to be a close fought game as the Huskies continued to
hold a slim lead over the Chippewas.
However, the Chippewas would take a 44-43 lead with 13:19 left to play, on a Pleiness
dunk, that the team wouldn’t relinquish.
At the 7:37 mark, holding a slim 53-52 lead, the Chippewas would go on an 11-2
run over the next 4:29 to take a 64-54 lead; the game’s biggest lead.
The Huskies would continue to fight and were only down 65-62 with 1:43 left to
play.
The Chippewas then turned up the defensive pressure, holding the Huskies scoreless
the rest of the way.
A Chris Kaman layup and free throws by Webber and Pleiness closed out the scoring
for the Chippewas and sealed the win.
Leon Rodgers led Northern Illinois with 16 points. Mike Brown and Stephen Jones
added 15 and 12 points, respectively.
“It’s not just the coach, or just one player, but the whole team,”
Smith said, commenting on the win.
“We have found ways to win all season and there was nothing different today.
This is for the players who helped get this turned around when everyone doubted
that we could do it.”
“We always believed that coach (Smith) would get the players here and that
he could get it turned around,” Kisner said.