CMU men's basketball outdueled by Missouri State
Freshman guard Reggie Bass lays a shot in during a game against Alma on Saturday, Dec. 3, in McGuirk Arena.
The Missouri State Bears were coming off of four consecutive losses by an average margin of 11.25 points, heading into Sunday evening’s contest against the visiting Central Michigan University Chippewas. Things looked differently for the Bears that night; CMU is now on a three-game losing streak.
CMU (4-7) ultimately fell to Missouri State (5-7), 79-58, being outscored by 10 points in the first half and 11 in the second. The Chippewas were outgained by the Bears in nearly every major statistic, including rebounds, assists, blocks, fastbreak points and paint points.
Both squads got out to relatively fast starts, trading blows through the first 12 minutes, during which the lead changed six times.
While CMU only managed 30 first-half points, 14 of them came from freshman guard Reggie Bass, who finished the game with 18 points on 4-of-13 shooting from the field, as well as two assists and four turnovers. With starting point guard Kevin Miller sidelined due to injury, Bass has been thrust into the role Miller would be in were he healthy.
In the first half, the Chippewas converted 45.5% of their 22 field goal attempts. Missouri State kept pace with them by hitting 48.1% of its shots. However, during the second half, CMU only managed to make 10 of its 33 attempts, while the Bears held a steady second-half field goal percentage of 52%.
As the second half unfolded, the Chippewas struggled to find rhythm offensively. They didn’t register a score until almost four minutes into the half, while Missouri State had already scored eight points. Down 48-32, CMU wouldn’t come within 10 points of the Bears for the remainder of the contest.
The Bears were led by senior forward Dalen Ridgnal, who scored 16 points and pulled down eight rebounds in 29 minutes of action. Junior forwards Jonathan Mogbo and James Graham both had 12 points for Missouri.
The rebounding disparity leaned heavily in favor of Missouri State, out-rebounding CMU 41-26. 15 of those were offensive rebounds, leading to 15 second-chance points.
Senior guard Brian Taylor scored 12 points and three steals for CMU, while junior guard Jesse Zarzuela added seven points and dished out four assists. Starting forward Miroslav Stafl fouled out of the game with just under nine minutes left to play, only managing three points. Freshman forward Ola Ajiboye and sophomore center Nico Pavrette both blocked two shots.
While the Chippewas are slowly getting back to health, they were still without the services of Miller and freshman guard Emil Skytta. Miller has only played in four games this season, starting each of them. Skytta has played in six games and made one start.
CMU will look to end its losing streak as it welcomes Youngstown State to Mount Pleasant on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
