Men's basketball steps away from MAC play for ESPNU's BracketBusters
The CMU men’s basketball takes a step away from conference play Saturday amid the Mid-American Conference grind.
The Chippewas face Tennessee State at 6:30 p.m. at Rose Arena as part of ESPN’s BracketBuster event.
“We’ll just take it as another game on our schedule,” said senior guard Jordan Bitzer. “We’re going to prepare the same way we have been for all the games we’ve played this season.”
CMU coach Ernie Zeigler said he is looking for consistency since the team lost four of its last five games.
“We need to see if we can get back to sustaining a defensive mindset,” Zeigler said. “We’ve kind of been a Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde here during the past five games, and its definitely contributed to our win/loss situation.”
The BracketBuster setup pits non-major conference teams against each other to help their chance for a potential NCAA Tournament bid.
CMU is 1-2 under Zeigler in BracketBuster games. The team defeated Fairleigh Dickinson 68-62 last season at Rose Arena as part of the series.
Tennessee State (8-20) comes off a 76-57 victory against Jacksonville State on Wednesday at Gentry Arena.
It was the Tigers’ fourth consecutive win. However, the team is 2-13 on the road this season.
The Tigers have three players averaging double-figure points per game and four in conference play.
Freshman guard Jacquan Nobles (6-foot-4) averages 11.1 points per game and freshman forward Robert Covington (6-foot) averages 10.9. Junior forward Josh Sain (6-foot-5) leads the team in scoring, averaging 13.7 points per game, but will be out of the lineup.
Sitting Second
CMU (12-13, 7-6 MAC) lost its share of the MAC West lead in a 69-63 loss to Ball State (14-11, 8-5 MAC) Wednesday in Muncie, Ind.
The teams were each 7-5 in the division coming into play.
“We don’t control our own destiny now, and we have to regroup and try to finish strong in these last three (conference) games,” Zeigler said, “and put ourselves into position to have the best record we possibly can and see where that puts us in terms of seeding.”
Ball State pushed a 10-point halftime lead to 15 in the second before CMU went on an 18-0 run, its biggest of the season. The run helped the Chippewas take the lead by as many as four.
“I was really proud of the fact that we responded after getting challenged about getting out-toughed,” Zeigler said.
The Cardinals responded, however, with an 11-2 run with about five minutes remaining to clinch the victory.
“Our inability to defend in the first half and in the key stretches of the second half with the lead put us in the position not to be able to sustain a comeback,” Zeigler said.
Bitzer led CMU with 18 points while three others scored seven. Randy Davis led the Cardinals with 24 points and Jauwan Scaife had 18.
Ball State shot 48.8 percent for the game, double the 24.4 percent it shot in CMU’s 58-38 win in the team’s previous matchup Jan. 13 at Rose Arena.
CMU returns to conference play Wednesday at Northern Illinois.
