Led by Keene, men's basketball splits early season road test
After more than 3,000 miles traveled in the past week, the Central Michigan men's basketball team notched a 2-2 record during four road games, improving to 5-2 on the season.
CMU made the trip to Cedar Park, Texas to participate in the Lone Star Showcase from Nov. 21-23.
The Chippewas' roster was pitted against mid-major powers Pepperdine, St. Bonaventure and Arkansas-Little Rock, which went to the NCAA Tournament last season.
CMU opened the tournament with an 88-77 win against Pepperdine on Nov. 21. Senior guard Marcus Keene, who suffered a lower-body injury in a win over Marygrove College on Nov. 17, returned to his home state of Texas to score a career-high 36 points in the win. Fellow Texas native, senior guard Braylon Rayson finished with 20.
“It means a lot because the first time I came to Texas back at (my former school) Youngstown (State), I didn’t really have a good game. I felt like I let them down," Keene said, following the win. "Coming back to Texas with Central Michigan, I wanted to have a better performance than last time."
Less than 24 hours later, Keene's 36-point effort turned into a 23-point performance in a loss to St. Bonaventure. The 102-71 defeat was CMU's first loss of the season.
The Chippewas tried to rebound and close out the showcase with a win over Little Rock the next day, but was not successful. CMU trailed 81-79 with 2:06 remaining before the Trojans closed the game with a 10-0 run to win 91-79.
CMU left the tournament with a 1-2 record.
“I thought we were good (in the final minutes)," said Head Coach Keno Davis after the loss to Little Rock. "We had some calls go against us. They made tough shots, we had some open shots that didn’t (go in). I don’t think it was anything from an execution standpoint — we don’t have much room for error right now as we will when we get better as a team.”
The Chippewas traveled to Green Bay, Wisconsin where the team enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and practice on Friday.
On Saturday, CMU rallied from a 45-41 halftime deficit to defeat Green Bay 89-77 to finish the road trip with a .500 record.
Keene scored 31 points for the Chippewas, who made 14-of-36 3-pointers in the game.
The Chippewas also out-rebounded the Phoenix 50-49, with 11 of those boards coming from bench players and junior forward DaRohn Scott.
Davis said for a team whose roster makes up over one-third of new players, he was proud of the team to go .500 on the road trip and win five of its first seven contests this season.
“After four games in seven days, you’re on the road for over a week – if you came out flat or didn’t play your best, there’d be many built-in excuses and some with some credibility," Davis said. "To be able to not only win but I think even more importantly, play extremely hard, says a lot about the character of these guys on the team and how much they’re pushing to become better.”
CMU hosts William & Mary at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 29 at McGuirk Arena.
