After holding halftime lead, Central Michigan falls at Texas
Dallas Morgan took a pass from junior guard Devontae Lane and drained his third-straight 3-pointer for the Central Michigan men's basketball team.
Morgan, a senior guard, accounted for nine points in 90 seconds after Texas took its first lead at 46-44 in the early stages of the second half in the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas.
However, the effort would fall short for the Chippewas as they fell to Texas, 87-76, on the road Saturday.
In the first half, the Chippewas led by as many as nine and took a 42-36 lead to halftime over the Longhorns.
CMU (7-4) has yet to win a game away from McGuirk Arena this season and again lost a game on the road which the team held a halftime lead.
"I was really pleased with our guys," said coach Keno Davis. "With a tough week of finals and getting down here so late, there are a lot of excuses for not being sharp but the guys came out with a lot of energy. We played a really good 20 minutes, unfortunately, the games are 40."
Central Michigan did not trail in the first half facilitated, in large part, by the team's ball security as the Chippewas committed just eight turnovers against Texas' 12 miscues.
Another key part of CMU's lead in the first half was its presence in the paint, the team scored 18 points in the paint compared to 10 from the Longhorns.
Coming out of the break, the Longhorns imposed their will against the Chippewas and forced the visitors to move away from their inside presence and force shots from outside. CMU shot 9-of-21 from 3-point range after shooting 5-of-10 in the first half.
Senior guard Kevin McKay was perfect from the field as he shot 7-of-7 and was 7-of-9 from the free throw line. McKay finished with 21 points and led four Chippewa scorers in double digits.
David DiLeo, a senior forward, scored 15 points while Morgan finished with 14 and senior forward Rob Montgomery scored 12 points. McKay also led the Chippewas with six rebounds.
Jase Febres led Texas with 23 points and he shot 70% from beyond the arc as he played almost every minute of the game. His seven 3-pointers accounted for half of Texas' made triples.
Courtney Ramey scored 20 points for the Longhorns and he added six assists and three rebounds.
In the final 20 minutes, Texas outscored CMU, 51-34, to keep its record unblemished at home this season.
On the glass, the Longhorns outrebounded CMU, 42-26, and forced the Chippewas into a lot of turnovers in the second half as CMU finished with 19 turnovers, Texas had 22 turnovers in total.
"I liked the way we fought in the last 20 minutes," Davis said. "That will be something helpful for us going down the road."
CMU heads to Robert Morris at 7 p.m. Tuesday for the third of its four-game road trip.
