2008 Woodie Awards
Wednesday win propels team into Missouri
By: Daniel Monson
Issue date: 2/22/08 Section: Sports
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But coach Ernie Zeigler said CMU re-established its defensive presence during Wednesday's 63-58 win against Ball State at Rose Arena, allowing the Cardinals to shoot only 37.5 percent.
Central takes a break from Mid-American Conference play when it meets Missouri State at 7 p.m. CDT Saturday in Springfield, Mo.
MSU, a member of the Missouri Valley Conference, was paired with the Chippewas as a part of the ESPN BracketBusters challenge based on its overall record (13-15). The event pairs members of mid-major conferences together to give teams an NCAA Tournament feel.
"Hopefully for us in the future, this game will end up being something that can help us with future NCAA Tournament aspirations if we're playing well enough to have that opportunity," Zeigler said. "For right now, it will give us a great opportunity to see if we can sustain the defensive presence and intensity that we were able to establish against Ball State."
Like Central, the Bears have five senior leaders. Their top two scorers - Deven Mitchell (13.8) and Dale Lamberth (13.5) - both are 6-foot, 5-inch forwards.
"We're going to play in a great atmosphere," Zeigler said. "We just have to not allow the things we can't control to affect our focus and attention to detail, particularly defensively."
Van the man
Junior forward Marcus Van came into Wednesday's game averaging only 5.2 points per game.
He eclipsed the mark in the first six minutes on his way to a team-high 18 points to help break CMU's three-game losing streak.
"Marcus is such a high-energy guy and we felt going in we had to establish an inside presence," Zeigler said. "(Ball State) only really played three guys at their post position. Marcus did a great job of not only getting catches in the sets we called for him, but when he did get the ball, he wasn't hurried."
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