Men's basketball grits out win over EMU, sets up showdown against Toledo
It was one of the grittiest performances of the season and Central Michigan men's basketball picked up one of its most important victories in the Mid-American Conference.
The Chippewas (20-8, 9-6 MAC) earned a 77-66 win over Eastern Michigan (13-15, 7-8 MAC) on Feb. 26 in the Convocation Center.
CMU's victory over the Eagles was just that – earned.
Senior guard Shawn Roundtree Jr. was held out of the game after his injury against Ball State, and it was evident early that his absence was felt.
The first possession of the game for the Chippewas resulted in a shot-clock violation due to the swarming extended 2-3 zone defense from EMU.
From then, the Eagles continued to control the inside on both ends of the floor. They kept Chippewa weapons like senior guard Larry Austin Jr., junior forward David DiLeo and junior guard Kevin McKay at bay.
The Eagles went on a 9-0 flurry that lasted just over three minutes. The run was capped off by a dunk from James Thompson IV.
As EMU continued to build its lead, growing to as many as 11 on an Elijah Minnie layup, CMU finally began to find success with its jump shot. The Chippewas began to chip away at the Eagle lead, cutting it down to as close as five with a make from Austin.
The waning seconds of the first half hurt the Chippewas in a big way. Austin was called for an offensive foul which gave the Eagles the ball with 5.9 seconds to play in the half.
CMU was trailing by eight points when junior guard Dallas Morgan fouled Paul Jackson, which gave EMU a one-and-one. Jackson hit both and the Chippewas went down by double digits, 35-25, heading to the halftime intermission.
Head coach Keno Davis praised his group's grit. Davis said that with all that went against them in the first half, CMU's deficit could have been worse.
"Even though the numbers weren't very good with rebounding, defense and offense," Davis said. The Chippewas were out-rebounded 23-11 in the opening half. "It felt like that game was still in reach and if we could play better in those areas, this game would come down to the wire."
CMU came out of the gates in the second half strong. Kevin McKay threw down a dunk, added a layup off a steal and DiLeo connected on a 3-pointer to cut the Eagles lead to 37-32.
McKay brought the game even at 42 when he connected on an old-fashioned 3-point play. He converted a layup off a pass from Austin then made a free throw.
The Chippewas went up by 12 points following a 15-5 run on the backs of McKay and DiLeo.
McKay finished with a double-double with a game-high 23 points and 10 rebounds.
Additionally, DiLeo's success against the Eagles' zone was all confidence and feel. DiLeo finished with 18 points.
"There were times that I would find myself open," DiLeo said. "Just stepping up with confidence and grooving it in warmups, making sure it felt good. It did tonight."
As the minutes and seconds continued to fall off of the clock, the Eagles received two technical fouls. The first directly on coach Rob Murphy. He was arguing with the officials that the clock should have stopped due to Minnie's injury.
The second was dispatched as the Eagles called a timeout when they had none remaining.
Morgan, who got the start in place of Roundtree, knew that his role in this game would be pivotal to success.
"I knew I had to be in the game and I had to be smart," Morgan said. "Take care of the ball... just be smart."
On the flip side, Thompson and the Eagles knew that they would have to contend with a hot-shooting team against their strong zone defense.
"He was telling (the forwards) to play up on them," Thomson said. "We noticed that they hit those threes from the corner. Coach told us in halftime to go up more and we needed to close out."
Murphy did not make himself available for comment after the game.
Coming up next, the Chippewas will welcome Toledo at 4:30 p.m. March 2 at McGuirk Arena. It will be a showdown to give the winner a lead in the MAC West Division.
