Men’s basketball dominates second half, moves to 10-4 in the conference
After a first half with nine lead changes and four tie scores, the habitually poker-faced junior guard Chris Fowler cracked a smile heading into the locker room while his teammates swarmed him with congratulations.
Ball State had the ball on the final possession of the half, down two points. Instead of a game-tying bucket, the Chippewas stole the ball, and threw it down the court to Fowler, who knocked down the deep 3-pointer as the clock hit zero.
“The shots at the end of the half can be big factors,” said Head Coach Keno Davis. “Chris has made that shot more times than I can count. When he’s got the ball in his hands, I know that he’s more than capable to knock those down.”
The Chippewas (20-5, 10-4 MAC) held the momentum through the second half, going on to win 83-60 and remain tied with Toledo for first place in the Mid-American Conference.
Junior forward John Simons, who led the team with 19 points and five rebounds, credits the second-half dominance to his team’s depth.
“We feel that we’re a really good transition team when we can get up and go, but in order to do that we have to either rebound well or get some steals to get us going in transition,” Simons said. “That can change the momentum and start a run, which it did (Saturday).”
Ball State was without its leading rebounder Saturday and rotated seven players most of the game while CMU had 10 players contribute points.
“We feel like we have the most depth in the conference,” Fowler said. “We feel like all 11 guys could be starters on this team. We trust everybody. We feel like if we can get up and down and get into the other team’s bench, our bench is more capable.”
While Fowler had 18 points of his own, he also contributed eight assists, moving him into first place in program history with 492 career assists. Fowler was given the game ball after the final buzzer and was greeted with a standing ovation from the crowd.
Fowler said his family was in attendance and was happy to be able to break the record in front of the home crowd.
“It’s special for our entire team,” Davis said. “Chris will be the first to say, without his teammates making shots, he doesn’t get that honor.”
If the season ended after Saturday’s games, the Chippewas would be the second seed in the MAC Tournament behind Kent State. The top two seeds will receive a bye to the semi-finals, while the third and fourth seeds get a first-round bye.
“If you’re looking forward to the conference tournament or the last game or the next game, you’re going to get beat,” Davis said. “I don’t think we’ve looked ahead of a team all year and I would be surprised to see us start to do that now.”
CMU plays Eastern Michigan University on the road Tuesday. The Chippewas downed the Eagles 65-51 Jan. 24 in McGuirk Arena, however EMU has won three of its past four games and has a stifling zone defense.
