The junior forward tallied a career-high 21 points and hit a three-pointer as time expired, leading the Central Michigan men’s basketball team to a 70-67 win against Cal State Fullerton in the opening round of the Rainbow Classic at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.

With the game tied at 67 in the final minute, senior guard Amir Rashid drew a charge against Cal State Fullerton’s Perry Webster, setting up the game-winning play.

“We called a timeout and talked about setting a screen with (Andre) Coimbra,” said CMU head coach Ernie Zeigler. “Trey (Zeigler) and Derek (Jackson) were both in and we told them to go make a play. Jalin stepped up.”

Freshman Zeigler took the ball the length of the court and found Thomas on the right wing, where he hit his third three-pointer of the night to give CMU the win.

Thomas, fighting the flu, went 7-of-18 shooting for the night, also grabbing four rebounds in the best game since playing under Zeigler.

“The emphasis has been starting the season off great,” Thomas said. “That’s something we didn’t do last year. I was really sick but being a senior and captain of this team, I knew I had to step up and show what battling through adversity is.”

He wasn’t the only senior the Chippewas got production from.

Rashid finished the game with 13 points and four rebounds while going 3-for-3 from the free throw line, an area he struggled in last season. Forward Will McClure pulled down a game-high 15 rebounds and Antonio Weary added seven points and three rebounds.

“Any good team, any good program, is only as good as its seniors,” Ernie Zeigler said. “If you look at all of our seniors, they were role players last year. (They) were absolute men tonight.”

CMU (1-0) started the game off sluggish, falling behind 11-2 on 1-of-10 shooting. Despite a poor offensive performance in the first half – the team shot just 32 percent from the floor compared to the Aggies’ 57 percent mark - it hung around and went into halftime down four.

“Keep battling – that’s what was going through my mind and the minds of the rest of the seniors,” Thomas said. “Coach told us we had to keep battling to come back, and that’s exactly what we did.”

The Chippewas stormed out of the locker room and went on a 10-1 run to start the second half, taking their first lead of the game. CSU Fullerton tied the game several times and even held a six-point lead with 10 minutes remaining, but CMU seemed to be able to come through on big plays down the stretch.

Freshman Zeigler, who finished the game with 11 points and eight rebounds, hit a pair of clutch jumpers in the final three minutes.

“It gives us confidence,” Ernie Zeigler said. “We’ve been telling our guys that how we start our season is how we want to end our season.”

The win is CMU’s second season-opening win in the past four season.

Coimbra added 12 points in 16 minutes off the bench.

Orane Chin had 17 points and 12 rebounds for Cal State Fullerton (0-1).

CMU continues tournament play at 2:30 a.m. Sunday against Montana State in Honolulu. In its first tournament game on Friday, Montana State lost 77-59 against host Hawaii.