Men's basketball shuts down MAC's leading scorer
Twenty seconds remained in the first half, and the leading scorer in the Mid-American Conference had the ball in his hands, watching the time dwindle.
Senior guard Larry Austin Jr. surveyed the scene from his spot on helpside defense and yelled to his teammates over the din of the crowd.
“Y’all know he can’t shoot!" Austin shouted.
Kent State senior guard Jaylin Walker averaged 22.2 points per game coming into the contest against Central Michigan (18-8, 7-6 MAC). Boasting a blistering 40.7 percent success rate from beyond the arc, Walker is arguably the best shooter in the entire conference.
The Chippewas didn't become another victim.
In CMU’s 84-74 home win over KSU (19-7, 8-5) on Feb. 19, Austin was exactly right — Walker was atrocious from the field. He shot 2-of-16 from the floor on the night and missed all four of the 3-pointers he attempted.
Walker was smothered by CMU’s defense the entire night, and rarely did he find any sort of daylight to shoot.
With just under six minutes to play in the first half, Walker had attempted only three shots. All three missed badly.
As the halftime buzzer sounded, Walker still hadn’t made a single shot from the field. He was 0-of-7 at the break and the three points he scored in the half came from the free throw line.
Despite Walker’s shooting woes, the Golden Flashes were able to climb back from a double-digit first half deficit and make it a one possession game.
With 13:10 left in the second half, Walker elevated over his defender and knocked down a tough jumper from the right elbow for his first field goal of the night. The basket cut the Chippewas’ lead to 52-51.
A couple minutes later, Walker downed another jumper that catapulted KSU into a 57-56 lead with 10:50 remaining.
The Golden Flashes extended that lead to five before relinquishing control back to CMU with just over seven minutes to play.
Walker went 0-for-6 from the field to finish the game. Each of his attempts was highly contested, causing Walker to double-clutch and release awkward shots.
It took a team effort to subdue the MAC’s leading scorer.
“All five guys knew where he was at all times,” said junior forward Rob Montgomery. “We made it hard for him to drive to the rim and come off ball screens.”
Even when Walker was able to shake his defender and get into the lane, he was inevitably greeted by more than one Chippewa flowing from the helpside to prevent an easy layup.
“Although we fouled him on some of those plays, we made him work for every point he was going to get,” said head coach Keno Davis.
Walker finished with 14 points, going 10-for-12 from the line.
“It was a rewarding experience to be able to win a game with your focus on giving that kind of effort guarding the outstanding player that Jaylin Walker is,” Davis said.
The Chippewas will face a similar scoring threat in Tayler Persons, who averages a shade under 17 points per game for Ball State (14-12, 5-8). CMU travels to Muncie, Ind. at 2 p.m. for a Feb. 23 matchup against the Cardinals in Worthen Arena.
