Thomas unlikely to play Thursday against NIU
Ernie Zeigler could see it on his players’ faces.
Holding onto a one-possession lead in the second half at Ball State on Saturday, any sense of momentum came to a grinding halt when Jalin Thomas fell to the floor at Worthern Arena reeling in pain. On a layup that gave CMU a 5-point lead with less than 11 minutes to play, Thomas landed wrong on his left ankle and had to come out of the game.
“We had momentum,” Zeigler said. “We had been in control of the game for the first 30 minutes or so and when he went down, guys unexpectedly saw themselves in a new role.”
A new role that put each of them in a position to try and make up for the lost offense Thomas provided.
Up until his injury, he scored all of the team’s 12 second-half points.
But now the Central Michigan men’s basketball team faces uncertainty heading into its game Thursday against Northern Illinois at McGuirk Arena.
While Thomas didn’t suffer a fracture, as some had feared, the injury was a Grade 2 ankle sprain. With it comes a suggested 10-14 day recovery period. In the team’s first practice back on Monday, he sat out with a boot on his leg.
Regardless, both he and Zeigler are hopeful he can give it a go Thursday.
“Everybody feels differently,” Thomas said. “I try to look at it positively and, hopefully, maybe something will happen and I’m able to play.”
If he’s unable to play, the more likely scenario, then CMU will be faced with playing the Huskies (6-9, 2-1 Mid-American Conference) without one of its two scoring options. Thomas was averaging 15.1 points per game, second to freshman Trey Zeigler’s 17 points per game mark.
Behind those two?
Derek Jackson, Andre Coimbra and Amir Rashid – all averaging less than six points per game.
With very few individuals capable to putting up numbers similar to Thomas’, Zeigler said he’s looking to get more production out of several guys rather just one.
“I don’t think it’s just putting it on one guy to take the place of Jalin’s potential 18-20 points and 5-8 rebounds per game,” Zeigler said. “We have to get more effort and different guys stepping up. It’s something that has to be collectively dispersed through the next guy in and throughout the lineup.”
Silas a scoring threat
While freshman Trey will be expected to carry a lot of the load offensively, he will face his toughest task of the season defensively.
The Huskies boast one of the premier guards in the country in Xavier Silas, and Trey and senior Antonio Weary have been tasked the duty of trying to guard Silas. The 6-foot-5, 198-pounder currently leads the MAC in scoring and is fourth in the country with 23.6 points per game. He also leads the conference in free throw shooting at 87.7 percent.
“It’s going to be a challenge for me and Antonio,” Trey said. “We just have to step up to the plate, limit his touches and slow him down a little bit.”
NIU is coming off a pair of conference wins last week against Eastern Michigan and Toledo. In the game against EMU, Silas scored 31 on 11-of-14 shooting, including a cool 6-for-6 from behind the 3-point line.
“He’s an absolute load,” Ernie Zeigler said. “Trey and Antonio are going up against the best player they’ve seen all year long.”
