Men's basketball reflects on CMU shooting, unique playing experience against WMU


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The Central Michigan men’s basketball team was supposed to have its senior night on March 2 at McGuirk Arena against Western Michigan.

Instead, due to the shooting at Campbell Hall on the campus of Central Michigan University around 9 a.m. March 2, the Chippewas were forced to delay the game. It was moved to 11 a.m. on March 3 at Riepma Arena.

According to transfer guard Shawn Roundtree, the location and time was the least of CMU’s concerns.

“As basketball players, you have to adapt. At this point in our basketball careers, we’ve all had to make adjustments and play early,” Roundtree said. “We have the chance to give the community a sense of hope and the area of Mount Pleasant something to be proud of.

“We wanted to win this game for them.”

Winning is what the Chippewas did, as they downed the Broncos, 84-71. Roundtree led CMU with 27 points.

Around 12:50 a.m. on March 3, James Eric Davis Jr., who shot and killed both his parents, was taken into custody.

Head coach Keno Davis said it wasn't the ending to the regular season he envisioned.

“This wasn't exactly the big senior night we wanted for our guys but with a tragedy like this we had to put things in perspective and set aside wins and losses for a second," said head coach Keno Davis. "It was awesome we were able to feed off a crowd of only 100 (people) or so and get the win.”

Senior forward Luke Meyer, who scored 18 points in the win over WMU, agreed with Roundtree on how this can help the CMU community.

“Sports are a very powerful thing and when something happens like this and you have the chance to bring out a positive, you want to do it for everyone,” Meyer said. “All of our prayers are out there for the people involved in it and they were on my mind.”

Meyer also said he believes it made the team come closer together having to suddenly play at a neutral site. 

“I think we have really good character throughout the entire team and had to overcome some adversity,” Meyer said. “It was tough but I’m proud of how our guys handled it.”

Roundtree said it was an unfortunate situation for the everyone at CMU but they did what they could do as a team.

“Our thing was to control the things we could control and be there for each other,” Roundtree said. “I think how we rallied together and came out with the win is a testament to how powerful a situation like this can be.”

The Chippewas will play Bowling Green in the first round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament at 7 p.m. on March 5 at McGuirk Arena.

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