Keene leads men's basketball over William & Mary
Marcus Keene could not be stopped.
Coming into Tuesday’s game, the junior point guard and San Antonio native was leading the nation with 29.6 points per game. That was just a taste of what he had in store for William & Mary.
The transfer from Youngstown State had the fans at McGuirk Arena on their feet as he tied his career-high with 36 points to lead the CMU men’s basketball team (6-2) to a 91-81 victory Tuesday night
Keene finished the first half with 13 points, but took over in the second half by driving to the rim. He has scored at least 30 points in six games this season.
As a team, the Chippewas trailed by three at halftime, but controlled the tempo in the second half. CMU — which is 26th nationally in offensive tempo — was undersized against the Tribe, but used its speed to push the pace. The Chippewas went on a 22-6 run to put the game out of reach.
They led by as many as 19 in the second half.
“It looked like we wore them down in the second half,” Keene said. “In the first half, I was taking a lot of forced jump shots and coach told me to go take it to the paint to create for myself and teammates. I was able to get some layups then.”
CMU’s increased energy after halftime was noticeable from the start as senior Josh Kozinski hit a 3-pointer and then took a charge in consecutive series to ignite the home crowd. Kozinski finished with 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting on 3-pointers.
While William & Mary’s bench outscored CMU’s 34-10, the Central Michigan starters stole the show.
When Keene and Kozinski weren’t open, senior guard Braylon Rayson
took over and scored 23 points on 8-of-17 shooting. The Dallas native
scored the first five points of the game and was the only other Chippewa beside Keene to consistently create his own shot.
“We have a lot of weapons on this team,” Keene said. “If teams start adjusted to not letting me score, I know Braylon is going to step up even more. If they slow me down, they’re not going to slow him down and they are not going to slow Josh down.”
Rayson said it is a “dream come true” getting to play with his fellow Texan and high school rival.
“We knew one of us would lead the nation in scoring, we just didn’t know who,” he said. “I’ll catch up with (Keene) eventually.”
Junior forward Cecil Williams collected 13 rebound for the Chippewas, including four on the offensive glass. Freshman David DiLeo scored 10 points off of the bench and hit two crucial 3-pointers in the first half to keep CMU within striking distance.
The Tribe outscored the Chippewas 38-22 in the paint and had 15 second chance points to CMU’s 0.
“(William & Mary) is a postseason team the way they play offense and defense,” said Head Coach Keno Davis. “We accomplished something tonight by beating a really good team. I think this game will prepare us for other games because of how tough they were.”
The Chippewas return to McGuirk Arena on Saturday to take on Arkansas-Pine Bluff at 4:30 p.m.
