COLUMN: Men's basketball needs to defend McGuirk to keep MAC West title hopes alive
Coming into the final stretch of the season, the Central Michigan basketball team traveled to Ohio to get their second Mid-American Conference away win.
Later that week, they had an ugly loss to Miami (Ohio) on the road.
After starting MAC play with three straight losses, CMU has won six of the last nine games and are fighting for first place in the West division.
Currently, CMU is in a four-way tie for first place in the MAC West.
Central Michigan needs to defend home court in the upcoming three-game home stretch against Buffalo, Ball State, and Northern Illinois — three teams that defeated CMU earlier in the season.
In the first matchup between the Chippewas and the Bulls, CMU traveled to Buffalo, New York after its first conference road win against Kent State in overtime on Jan. 28.
Though CMU scored 91 points, they couldn’t seem to defend Buffalo in the second half which resulted in a 101-91 loss for the Chippewas against the reigning MAC Tournament champions.
This will be CMU's toughest matchup because Buffalo is on a four-game win streak. CMU needs to bounce back from their loss to Miami (Ohio) to get a good start to the three-game home stretch.
When CMU faced Ball State the first time, the game resulted in another loss for the Chippewas.
CMU gave up an 18-0 Ball State run to end the first half and looked as if it couldn’t get hot after the dominating run.
The Chippewas rallied in the second half but couldn’t finish. Marcus Keene missed 16 of his shots that night, but still managed to put up 29 points.
Ideally, this time CMU will be ready to play some defense in its second-straight home game.
NIU beat CMU by four points in the teams first contest. CMU got off to a slow start and was dominated on the boards 53-42.
At the time, this was Keene’s lowest scoring output of season with 14 points on 11 shots. Keene also missed six of his 10 free-throw attempts.
This game should be different because CMU has out-rebounded its opponents in the last three games and the Chippewas get crucial home-court advantage.
In these three losses, CMU played all the games away from McGuirk Arena.
The Chippewas have been dominant posting a 10-1 record at home.
If CMU can limit turnovers and play like they have been playing at McGuirk all season, they may be able to grab one of the top four spots for a bye in the first round in the MAC Tournament.
