CMU unable to keep up with Broncos, fall to ninth seed in MAC tournament
You could see it on Ernie Zeigler’s face as he sat down to field questions from the media.
His answers were short, and he was more guarded – even more so than after his team’s second-half collapse against Ball State a week earlier.
All Central Michigan needed to host an opening round game in the Mid-American Conference tournament was to win, or have Buffalo beat a struggling Bowling Green team.
Instead, following an 81-68 loss to Western Michigan Saturday in front of 3,024 at McGuirk Arena, it got neither.
“Congratulations to coach (Steve) Hawkins and Western Michigan,” were the first words out of Zeigler’s mouth. “They did a heck of a job coming in here and playing through adversity and showed why they are the best team in the West.”
Bowling Green, riding a six-game losing streak into its final game at Anderson Arena, pulled off an 83-73 win over Buffalo earlier in the day to claim the seventh seed in next week’s conference tournament.
Now, CMU will have to travel to Buffalo on Tuesday, a place where it suffered its worst MAC defeat of the season, losing 72-43 on Feb. 8. A win and the team advances to the quarterfinals in Cleveland. A loss and its season comes to an end.
“Every game we play we are going to try to compete to win,” Zeigler said. “You can’t rest your laurels on what’s happened earlier. We just have to come back and see what resolve we have to pur ourselves in a position to go on the road.”
The Broncos, who claimed sole possession of the MAC West Division title with the win, entered Saturday’s game without star forward Flenard Whitfield. As a result, CMU was able to stay close as both teams traded baskets early on.
But WMU’s game plan quickly became clear, as the Broncos used a series of double screens to gain easy, short jumpers in the paint. CMU’s man-to-man defense struggled to adjust in the second half, allowing Broncos guard Mike Douglas and forward Juwan Howard Jr. to penetrate the lane and make things tough for the Chippewas defense.
Douglas finished with a game-high 28 points on 10-of-21 shooting, while Howard scored 19 on 7-of-14 from the field. Together, the duo combined for 17 of WMU’s 28 field goals.
“We just had a lot of guys not rotating, me included,” said senior forward Jalin Thomas. “Douglas kept coming off and killing our guards. The second half we tried to squeeze it, but that didn’t work out so well. They proved to be the better team.”
Thomas finished with 25 points on 9-of-18 shooting, but the rest of the Chippewas offense was held in check. Howard limited freshman guard Trey Zeigler to eight points on 4-of-18 shooting, while freshman Derek Jackson scored eight points on 3-of-14 from the field.
Ernie Zeigler called Howard the best freshman on the floor.
“They definitely took their lumps,” Zeigler said of Jackson and his son’s performance. “They both really struggled, but they are a part of our future and this is fortunately something they will be able to grow upon later on in this rivalry.”
Junior forward Andre Coimbra was the only other player to score in double figures, recording 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting.
Coimbra, who fouled out of the game, helped spark a comeback with a personal 5-0 run to bring the team to within 51-46, with 11:30 remaining, but two quick fouls took him out of the game for much of the second half.
Having squandered a chance to host its first-ever tournament game since the inception of the school joined the Mid-American Conference, CMU will have the next two days to prepare for a Buffalo team that is 12-3 at home.
Conversely, the Chippewas are 3-12 away from McGuirk Arena.
“It’s something we didn’t want to do,” Thomas said. “We wanted to play our game here next Tuesday. We didn’t do what we’re supposed to do, and now we have to go play there. We’re still going to fight regardless, and we got to go there and play our hearts out.”
Tipoff at Alumni Arena is set for 7 p.m.
