Men's basketball overcomes adversity in Junkanoo Jam tournament championship


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Senior guard Shawn Roundtree brings the ball under the net and jumps for a layup on Oct. 30 at McGuirk Arena.

When the Central Michigan men’s basketball team returned from the Junkanoo Jam to Mount Pleasant on Nov. 19, a championship wasn’t the only thing they took from the trip.

Head coach Keno Davis went into this tournament with the hope that his team would understand more about what it’s like to play back to back games.

After multiple highs and lows throughout the tournament, he feels this team learned more than just that. They learned a lot about each other.

“All three games tested us against some really good competition with the possibility of all three games going either way,” Davis said. “These guys had to take a lot of adversity and to come back with a win in the final game says a lot about this years group.”

The tournament games were played at the Gateway Christian Academy — a high school gym.

Game one

The Chippewas started on an 11-2 run and would extend that lead to 11 points going into the locker room. In the second half, CMU’s first look at adversity in the 2018-19 season set in.

The Jackrabbits started the second half on a 9-0 run and made the score 34-31. As the clock ticked towards the 10 minute mark, CSUB gained its first lead at 44-43. CMU hadn’t yet trailed this season. 

“When we got down we felt like we shouldn’t have been,” said junior guard Kevin McKay. “We had to stick to the game plan and put it to action with what the coaches were telling us to do.”

Whatever that game plan was, it worked over the final five minutes of the contest. The Chippewas dropped a dominating 17-3 run to finish the game and won 67-55. They responded to losing the lead with big buckets led by a pair of triples from junior forward David DiLeo. 

“You’re not always going to be playing with the lead,” Davis said. “When things weren’t going our way I think we stayed with what we had to do. We out ourselves in a position to win.”

Game two

The Chippewas didn't have much time to scout their next opponent, since they just finished the first game the day before. 

“We would’ve liked to have more time but having more time meant that we wouldn’t have won,” Davis said. “If we have those opportunities in March this can go a long way.”

Neither team let the other run away with the game. It was 32-30 in favor of the Chippewas at halftime.

Closing in on five minutes remaining, CMU put together a 9-0 run and had a 69-61 lead with intentions of pulling away. The Wildcats answered with 49 seconds to play and pulled to within one point.

DiLeo had a chance to make two free throws and guarantee CMU overtime with a 3-point lead. Instead, he missed both and freshman guard Israel Barnes drained a game-winning 3-pointer as the clock expired. 

CMU led the game for nearly 30 minutes.

“It hurt, it’s a feeling that’s hard to explain,” said senior guard Shawn Roundtree. “We knew we were going to see what we were made of following that result.”

Game three

“I was proud of the guys for the way they responded (following the buzzer beater),” Davis said. “They knew they had to get up for a vital game.”

With the way the tournament was set up, a WSU loss in the final game following CMU’s matchup with San Jose State could still result in a championship for CMU based on point differential and overall record in the tournament. 

CMU found itself in a similar scenario as the game two nights before. The Chippewas went back and forth with SJSU, this time however it was the CMU trailing by a large deficit late in the second half. 

With 9:50 left the Chippewas trailed 63-50. They didn’t falter but instead following a pair of Roundtree free throws led 74-73 with 16 seconds to play. SJSU got to the line and converted one of two foul shots to tie the game with eight seconds remaining.

Roundtree took the inbound pass and trotted up the right side of the court. He put his head down at the SJSU 3-point line and drove to the bucket tossing up a floater over defenders.

Nothing but net with 2.9 seconds left. 

CMU would win the Junkanoo Jam following a WSU loss. Larry Austin Jr. rode a career-high 30 point performance against WSU to the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. McKay made the All-Tournament team. Without Roundtree’s runner to win game three, however, all of it would’ve been looked at differently.

“We were all close going into this game,” Roundtree said. “I have confidence in my teammates and they trust me. We took a shot of adversity and responded with an emotional win. It says a lot about us.”

The Chippewas gained experience while bonding through difficult situations. At the end of the day, they hope as the season gets late and times get tough, they can look back and remember what happened in that high school gym in the Bahamas.

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