Men's basketball loses to Ohio; Zeigler calls out officiating
Robbie Harman’s landmark night was overshadowed by the CMU men’s basketball team’s third consecutive loss Thursday.
CMU lost 89-76 against Ohio University at the Convocation Center in Athens, Ohio.
The senior guard scored his 200th career 3-pointer with 7:52 remaining in the first half to pass former CMU guard Giordon Watson for the CMU all-time lead in 3-pointers.
“I knew I was eventually going to hit that mark,” Harman said. “It happened to happen tonight, which is great. But we came up short.”
He finished the game with a career-high 31 points off 9-for-14 3-point shooting. His nine 3-pointers also were a career high.
Harman’s record breaking 3-pointer helped CMU lead 40-37 at halftime. But Ohio pulled away quickly in the second, outscoring CMU 27-12 to open the half.
“They did a really good job of forcing tempo,” said CMU coach Ernie Zeigler. “They came out with a lot of energy and got us on our heels.”
The Bobcats led by as many as 17, consistently keeping the Chippewas at bay. Ohio outshot CMU in the game, 49 percent to 39.3 and took advantage of its free-throw-shooting opportunities.
“It was probably the worst officiated game that I’ve ever been a part of as a former player, high school/AAU coach, assistant college coach, professional coach overseas and now the head coach here,” Zeigler said. “It was abysmal.”
The Chippewas were called for 29 fouls, allowing Ohio to shoot 35-for-48 from the free throw line. Ohio had 15 fouls and CMU was 14-for-16 from the line.
Senior guard Jordan Bitzer finished with 16 points, but shot 3-for-16 from the field before fouling out with 3:10 remaining. Senior forward Chris Kellermann finished with nine points, while junior forward Jalin Thomas had eight points and a team-leading nine rebounds. Kellermann fouled out with 1:59 remaining.
Bobcat junior guard Armon Bassett led Ohio with 25 points. Junior forward DeVaughn Washington had 24 points, 19 from the free throw line, and freshman guard D.J. Cooper had 19 and six rebounds.
Despite the loss, CMU (11-12, 6-5 MAC) is still tied for the lead in the MAC West with Ball State (12-11, 6-5 MAC). The Cardinals lost 76-42 Wednesday at MAC-leading Kent State.
Back to the West
CMU gets back to MAC West play when it hosts Toledo (3-22, 0-11 MAC) at 4:30 p.m. Sunday at Rose Arena.
Toledo is last in the MAC and has not won since Dec. 10 against Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, a 15-game losing streak.
The Rockets are coming off a 55-47 loss against Miami (OH) in Oxford, Ohio. Toledo led by three at the half, but allowed the RedHawks to shoot 68.8 percent in the second half.
Toledo is 0-11 on the road and score the lowest amount of points per game in the conference (55.4). UT also has the worst scoring margin (-12.4 points), the highest turnover margin (-4.72) and the worst rebounding margin (-1.8).
CMU defeated Toledo 59-48 in Toledo to begin the MAC season on Jan. 9. The Chippewas held the Rockets to 36.1 percent shooting and were led by Harman and Bitzer, who finished with 17 and 15 points, respectively.
Freshman guard Jake Barnett (6-foot-5) led the Rockets with 19 points. He leads the team in scoring, averaging 13.3 points per game. Junior forward Justin Anyijong (6-foot-9) leads the team in rebounding, averaging 5.3 per game.
