Career-highs for Keene, Rayson lead men's basketball over Green Bay
Marcus Keene and Braylon Rayson knew they had only one year to play together on the Central Michigan men's basketball team.
"We're going to make it epic," Rayson said." When he came in, we knew we were going to have one season together. We knew we were going to have to make the best of it."
The duo made the best of it on Tuesday night.
Keene, who was held to nine points in the first half against Wisconsin-Green Bay, exploded for 31 points in the second half to set a new career-high 40.
The junior guard and his backcourt mate and senior Rayson, who tied a career-high of 30, combined for 70 points to lead CMU to a win over Green Bay, 107-97 in McGuirk Arena.
The Chippewas improved to 8-2 after their second win over Green Bay this season. Keene scored 31 points in the first contest before totaling the same number in the second half Tuesday.
CMU's win comes two days after a Twitter exchange between Rayson and Keene with Rayson saying the duo had to score 70-plus on Tuesday.
"I just got in a rhythm in the second half," Keene said. "They started picking me up full court and letting me get into a little zone and I got some layups and my threes started falling. My mindset, I don't think anybody can stop me one-on-one. I got in the groove and just kept it going."
CMU held a 50-41 lead at halftime and grabbed a 14-point lead at one point in the second half. The Phoenix stormed back, cutting the CMU lead to 88-87 after a Trevor Anderson 3-pointer.
Keene then hit back-to-back jumpers and Rayson hit back-to-back free throws. Holding a 95-89 lead late, Keene knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to give him a career-high of 38 points at that point.
Rayson followed with a layup to give him 28 points. After Keene hit two free throws to give him 40, Rayson hit a layup with 12 seconds left to score 30 points for the first time since February 2014.
Green Bay(4-5) was led by 23 points from Kerem Kanter, the brother of the NBA player Enes Kanter. Kerem did not play in the first game against Green Bay, a 89-77 win on Nov. 26.
Despite Keene and Rayson scoring 70 points, CMU Head Coach Keno Davis highlighted the 10 rebounds from junior forward Luke Meyer and the strong defensive play from junior guard Josh Kozinski as contributions to a team win.
"I think if you look at everybody out their as our team and they all play roles," Davis said. "Even though you may not put up 40 points or have double-figure rebounds, the guy that gets in there for five or six minutes and are able to spell guys and make something positive happen, we're going to need more of."
CMU travels to Illinois at 3 p.m. on Saturday. The Chippewas have not played a Power 5 Conference-opponent since Dec. 17, 2014, when they won at Northwestern, 80-67.
