Men’s basketball knocks off rust in exhibition game against Ferris State
Senior point guard Chris Fowler chases after a ball in Saturday's exhibition game against Ferris State. The Chippewas topped the Bulldogs 77-63.
While the team did lead wire-to-wire, the Central Michigan men’s basketball was able to learn from a few rough patches in Saturday’s 77-63 win over Ferris State.
In the team’s first and last exhibition match of the season, CMU played it’s regular eight-man rotation for the majority of the game. Five Chippewas finished with double-digit points — sophomores Luke Meyer and DaRohn Scott, junior Braylon Rayson and seniors Chris Fowler and Rayshawn Simmons.
“I think we’re an improved defensive team from where we were last November,” said Head Coach Keno Davis. “You don’t just turn around in November and be better than you were in March. We see some things we need to improve. Defensively, rebounding, the offensive execution, there’s a lot of areas that Ferris State exposed and that’s good for us.”
The Chippewas started quickly, leading by double digits early in the first half, hitting 3-pointers and scoring quickly in transition. The Bulldogs moved to a zone defense late in the half, slowing CMU.
“They switched to the zone and we stopped executing as well. They started to bother us and we had to get it back going,” Simmons said. “When they switched to that zone, it kind of slowed us up a little bit, we weren’t pushing the ball as much.”
CMU’s 12-point halftime lead shrunk to six at the start of the second half, but another strong Chippewa run would put away the Bulldogs.
Division II Ferris State and Central Michigan both finished last season with a 23-9 record.
“That’s why you bring in a team of Ferris State’s caliber,” Davis said. “You could take a lesser opponent that wouldn’t expose those and you’d feel pretty good about yourself, but you wouldn’t really have learned what you need to see.”
An official attendance number was not announced, but there were plenty of Chippewa fans and a few fans that made the trek from Big Rapids to see the game.
“The crowd for an exhibition game like that, a couple years ago we’d have loved to have that for Western Michigan,” Davis said. “It shows where we’ve gone. I thought it was a nice crowd and I only expect it to get bigger from there.”
In the final few minutes, Davis put in some newer players to get them time on the court, including guard Corey Redman, who finished with two points. The starters on the bench cheered on the newcomers as they saw their first minutes on the court.
“On the bench, we’re telling guys ‘shoot the ball, shoot the ball,’ we’re excited for them because we don’t know how much they’ll play throughout the year or when they’ll play,” Simmons said. “We’re rooting for them just like they’re the starters. We had the guys on the bench cheering them on just like they were doing for us.”
Head Football Coach John Bonamego made an appearance, going on the court during a timeout to energize the crowd and urge fans to come to Tuesday night’s game Mid-American Conference game between CMU (5-4, 4-1 MAC) and Toledo (7-1, 4-1 MAC).
He also said fans can redeem their ticket stub from the exhibition game for free admission to Tuesday’s game.
CMU men’s basketball now turns its attention to Jacksonville State for next Friday’s regular season opener at McGuirk Arena. JSU finished 12-19 last season. The game tips off at 4:30 p.m.
