Men's basketball struggles during winter break
After winning four of its last five games heading into winter break, the Central Michigan men’s basketball team was playing some of its best basketball.
The Chippewas pulled out a 106-103 win at Montana State on Dec. 21 and a 90-82 victory at home against Chicago State on Dec. 30, before getting blown out at Eastern Michigan on Jan. 3 and falling short of a comeback at Northern Illinois on Saturday.
The Chippewas entered conference play as the nation’s sixth-highest scoring team.
After an 85-63 loss at EMU, CMU was looking for answers on offense heading to Dekalb, Illinois to play the Huskies.
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Trailing by 17 with under five minutes to play, the Chippewas broke out of their slump and rallied to cut the score down to 86-83 with two seconds remaining. Junior guard Josh Kozinski appeared to steal the ball to give CMU one-last shot to tie, but he stepped out of bounds and NIU added a free throw to win, 87-83.
“The schedule makers did not do us any favors,” said Head Coach Keno Davis following the NIU game. “There is a part of our schedule that isn’t as demanding, but you have to know that in this conference, anybody can beat anybody. I know our guys will be excited about the opportunities we have coming up.”
Junior guard and the nation's leading scorer Marcus Keene entered MAC play averaging 30.1 points per game, but scored just 14 points against NIU, dropping his scoring average below 30 for the first time this season.
CMU (10-5, 0-2 MAC) will look for its first MAC win at 7 p.m. Tuesday against the Akron Zips at McGurik Arena. The Chippewas then host Toledo at 7 p.m. Friday.
