Men's basketball loses halftime lead, ends on run to defeat CSU Bakersfield
On a night where the Central Michigan men’s basketball team struggled from beyond the arc, junior forward David DiLeo notched two big 3-pointers late the Chippewas had to have.
The Chippewas closed out the game on a 17-3 run capped off by back-to-back triples from DiLeo late to earn a 67-55 victory. This came after the Chippewas lost a 11-point halftime lead.
“If you would’ve told the casual CMU fan we could win shooting 39 percent from the field they wouldn’t have believed you,” said CMU head coach Keno Davis. “We would have to outscore teams but now we have a lot of guys who can win defensively as well.”
What happened
The Chippewas started the game with a 11-2 run led by a pair of layups from junior guard Kevin McKay. CSUB countered with a 6-0 run and made the game 11-8.
Senior guards Larry Austin Jr. and Shawn Roundtree led a 11-1 run that would put CMU ahead 22-9 with 8:04 left in the first half.
The Chippewas would hold a 31-20 lead going to the break, led by defense. CMU forced 15 turnovers and only allowed the Jackrabbits to shoot 24 percent from the field.
In the second half, things changed for CSUB.
The Jackrabbits went on a 9-0 run to start the second half, trimming the CMU lead to 34-31.
CSUB kept coming with good offense while the Chippewas continued to struggle from the free throw line. The Jackrabbits took their first lead of the game at 44-43 with 10:07 to play in the contest.
The two teams would trade buckets until the Chippewas dominated the final five minutes, only allowing three points from the Jackrabbits.
Outside of DiLeo’s 15 points, CMU’s scoring attack was spread between the teams top-3 scorers once again. Roundtree led the team with 16 points, Austin added 14 points with eight rebounds and four assists and McKay tallied 13 points, respectively.
CMU only shot 26 percent (6-of-23) from downtown, but held the Jackrabbits to 29.8 percent from the field and 28 percent (7-of-25) from 3-point distance.
The Chippewas stay in the winner’s bracket of the Junkanoo Jam and will play Nov. 15 against the winner of Weber State (1-1) and San Jose State (1-1) at 8:30 p.m. from the Bahamas.
“We could use a day off, but a day off would’ve meant a loss,” Davis said. “We will try to get some rest and put in a quick game plan which will be good for us because we hope to play back-to-back days in March.”
