CMU lets another halftime lead slip away, falls at DePaul

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A problem is beginning to develop for the Central Michigan men’s basketball team.

For the second consecutive game, CMU let a halftime lead slip away, losing 71-62 against DePaul Sunday before 7,467 at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill.

After taking a 12-point lead into the locker room, the Chippewas went scoreless through the first 5:54 of the second half, allowing the Blue Demons to pull within two and seize momentum and control of the game.

CMU committed a season-high 28 turnovers, 17 of which came in the second half, falling to 2-5 on the season.

“We’re extremely disappointed and deflated,” said head coach Ernie Zeigler. “I talked to our guys here twice about understanding that we can’t allow this to decimate us. We have to stay together and understand that this season’s a marathon and we’ve started a quarter of this marathon.”

Much like their home opener against Temple, the team was able to jump out to a fast start, taking a 19-5 lead 12 minutes into the game. DePaul had trouble finding its rhythm offensively for much of the first half, shooting 35 percent from the floor.

CMU took a 36-24 lead into halftime while outrebounding its opponents 22-10.

But the Blue Demon’s full-court pressure during the start of the second half proved to be too much, as they scored 10 consecutive points to pull within two. Senior guard Amir Rashid responded, scoring CMU’s next seven points as the team pushed its lead back out to eight before turnovers and a cold shooting came back to bite them.

“They came out with a lot of intensity,” Zeigler said of DePaul’s second half push. “It was fairly difficult to be able to overcome 28 turnovers. We really struggled to handle that pressure in the full court and I thought we really made some bad decisions.”

DePaul pulled to within three points with 9:48 remaining in the second half on a three-pointer from freshman guard Brandon Young. After forcing a pair of CMU turnovers, the Blue Demons scored a pair of buckets less than a minute later, including another three-pointer from Young, giving the home team its first lead of the game.

Young finished with a game-high 31 points on 9-of-11 shooting, including going a perfect 6-for-6 from beyond three-point range.

After trading baskets for the next three minutes, Young came up big again, knocking down another three-pointer, putting DePaul up 61-58. The Chippewas could not overcome the deficit as turnovers and foul trouble became an issue.

Freshman guard Trey Zeigler and junior forward Andre Coimbra both fouled out down the stretch, while starters Antonio Weary, Will McClure and Amir Rashid all played with four fouls late.

Ernie said the team’s foul trouble and lack of depth affected the team’s ability to score in the second half.

“With our injury situation right now, not having Finis Craddock really hurt us because he’s an open court player,” Ernie said. “You got to be able to drive to score and make plays and, outside of Amir, we had to play Jalin (Thomas) a lot at the three. We’d rather he be out finishing rather than trying to handle the ball in this pressure. We were just limited with our depth and they definitely took advantage of it.”

Craddock remains out with a high sprain in his ankle. There is no timetable yet on his return.

Thomas led the team in scoring with 19 points on 6-of-13 shooting. Rashid put together another nice game offensively, scoring 16 points and grabbing five rebounds, but committed a game-high eight turnovers.

Zeigler finished with 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting, most of which came in the first half.

CMU has the rest of the week off before hitting the road for the seventh time in eight games, playing LSU at 8 p.m. Saturday in Baton Rouge, La.