Men’s basketball looks to bounce back before finals week
Men’s basketball won its sixth game of the year in 2013 when Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's potential game-winning shot rimmed out at the buzzer. In 2014, the Chippewas will look to pick up their sixth win against the very same team Saturday.
SIU Edwardsville (1-4) will be Central Michigan University’s (5-1) last opponent before the team’s 10-day hiatus for finals week.
“It’s my philosophy to not have any games during finals week,” said Head Coach Keno Davis. “We’ve got some very motivated student-athletes not only on the basketball court, but in the classroom.”
Davis said the team will continue to practice during the break.
“They need to have as much time to focus on their finals and their academics,” Davis said. “We’ll still have practice, but we want those guys to do well and finish up well in their semester.”
The 10-day break is tied for the longest stretch without a game during the season for the Chippewas, the other during Christmas through New Year’s stretch.
CMU returns home after suffering its first loss of the season to Bradley 84-73 in the team’s first road game of the season.
“They were definitely more physical, bigger, faster, but the biggest difference was not having the home crowd behind us,” said freshman forward Luke Meyer. “(I’m) looking forward to bouncing back.”
With Bradley’s physicality, fouls were an issue for the Chippewas Tuesday, and could be again as SIU Edwardsville has two 6'10" upperclassmen.
“It threw off their rhythm when they did try and get back on the court,” said junior guard Chris Fowler, who leads the team with 15.3 points per game. “Every time you get in foul trouble, one foul brings you right back out of the game and that’s the hardest part.”
With Big Ten team Northwestern on deck for the Chippewas after SIU Edwardsville, Davis said the schedule continues to get more challenging.
“Both of our teams have the majority of our players returning for this year,” Davis said. “(SIU Edwardsville is) going to come up with the expectation of winning. For us to be able to win at McGuirk Arena, we’re going to need to continue to improve. Our schedule’s only going to get tougher as we go along.”
Saturday’s game will start at 1 p.m. at McGuirk Arena.
