Strong defense aids men's basketball in win
The CMU men’s basketball team began its season with a win Sunday against Marygrove College at Rose Arena.
The Chippewas built a lead that grew to as many as 49 points en route to the 85-38 exhibition victory.
“You start playing these first exhibition games, you’re looking for certain things,” said coach Ernie Zeigler. “For us, we wanted to focus on defense, our rebounding and taking care of the basketball.”
He said after the game that there definitely were improvements in those areas, holding Marygrove to less than 40 points while turning the ball over just 13 times and outrebounding the Mustangs 44-30.
“Hopefully, this is something that we can continue to get better at,” Zeigler said, with the men’s second and final exhibition game coming Saturday on the road against Indiana University — South Bend.
Opening close
The game began with Marygrove sticking with the Chippewas, with the score tied at 6 five minutes into the game.
From there, Central Michigan pulled away — led by senior guard Robbie Harman’s 3-for-4 3-point shooting — into a 39-15 halftime lead.
From there, the Chippewas’ lead increased, beginning the second half with a 16-6 run that put the game out of reach for the Mustangs.
“Our goal, for us to improve as a program and, at the same time, to have the success that we want to have as a team, we have to get better defensively,” Zeigler said. “And I though we did a really good job of pressuring the ball without fouling and ending possessions with rebounds and being physical.”
Harman led the team with a game-high 16 points, while junior center Marko Spica finished with 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting in his first game back after missing all of the 2008-09 season with a knee injury.
“It feels really great,” Spica said. “It definitely felt like I hadn’t played in a really long time ... but I’m not concerned with that at all. The only thing that concerns me is getting the win.”
Senior forward Chris Kellermann also returned to competition after missing all but seven games last season, scoring six points.
“I think both of them early were a little tentative,” Zeigler said. “But as it went on, I think Chris did a really good job of ... getting to the offensive boards and Marko had some jitters to start but, once he got back into it, he got a feel and an understanding.”
Making their debuts on Saturday were guards Finis Craddock (freshman) and Jalin Thomas (junior), who finished with 11 and five points, respectively.
Craddock has the potential to add depth to the backcourt and give Harmon — who led the team with 32.9 minutes per game last season — more of a rest.
