Men's basketball has six-game win streak over Toledo on the line Wednesday night
After 12 straight wins by Toledo over the Central Michigan men’s basketball team, the Chippewas have won the past six.
They will put that streak on the line Wednesday at 7 p.m. in a critical Mid-American Conference matchup at Toledo.
CMU has four conference games remaining and currently sits in 11th place.
“We’re playing for seeding,” head coach Ernie Zeigler said. “We’re playing to put ourselves in a position to hopefully be playing our best basketball heading into the conference tournament.”
Toledo is one game ahead of the Chippewas and has won three of its past four games. The Rockets are fourth in the MAC in scoring offense and 3-point field goal percentage. Sophomore Rian Pearson leads the MAC with 17.2 points per game.
“Toledo is a team that is playing better basketball than probably most of the teams in the conference right now,” Zeigler said. “They are a different team than we beat to open conference play back in January.”
In the first meeting this season, the Chippewas outlasted the Rockets 85- 69. CMU scored a season-high 85 points while shooting 30-54 from the field. It had four players who scored double-digits.
“Everyone was aggressive,” sophomore Derek Jackson said. “We were sharing the ball well. Everyone was shooting the ball with confidence and we were getting out in transition.”
But CMU is coming off a close 49-47 loss to Texas A&M Corpus Christi where it shot just 33.3 percent.
“Unfortunately we had some guys really struggle last game that normally score for us,” Zeigler said. “But we’re going to continue with what we’ve been doing and continue to look for each other, and hopefully get back to that balance we are capable of with having three, four or five guys in double figures.”
The Chippewas will see the return of two players Wednesday and possibly a third.
Finis Craddock and freshman Austin McBroom will return to the lineup. Junior Olivier MBaigoto is still day-to-day with concussion-like symptoms and will be a game time decision.
CMU is 33-52 all-time against Toledo.
