CMU men's basketball streak reaches three in win over Kent State
Junior guard Derrick Butler scores during the second half of the men's basketball game against Kent State Saturday, Jan. 13 in McGuirk Arena. Butler made seven out of his 12 attempted shots during the game. (Ella Miller | CM Life)
After a Kent State three pointer put the team up seven early in the second half, it looked like the Golden Flashes might be pulling away.
However, CMU clawed back from the deficit and after multiple lead changes, the Chippewas ended the game on a 24-8 run, giving them their third-straight conference win in a lopsided 77-62 victory over Kent State.
This is only the second time that CMU has won three-straight games under head coach Tony Barbee. It is also the first time Central Michigan has beat Kent State at home since 2019.
The win brings CMU to 8-8 on the season and 3-1 in Mid-American Conference play, marking the first time this season the team has been at .500.
“They’ve (Kent State) been one of the standard programs in his league,” head coach Tony Barbee said. “That was the team that went to the NCAA tournament last year with a lot of guys returning and this crowd made a huge impact today, and the students were incredible.”
The crowd Barbee was referring to was the increase of fans that attended Saturday’s game. A season high 1,667 fans in attendance was more than 400 more than any home game this season and made a huge impact in the game.
“It's our job to put people in the seats and you do that a lot of different ways," Barbee said. "But biggest one is your performance and this performance over the last two weeks will keep bringing the people back more and more.”
CMU played a full game, meaning it excelled on both offense and defense. As a team, the Chippewas shot 56 percent from the field while holding Kent State to 31 percent.
“Holy smokes look at that percentage,” Barbee said on Kent State's shooting percentage. “That was probably the best defensive effort of the year, and we've had some pretty good efforts defensively.”
The Chippewas also limited turnovers as they only had eight as a team.
Leading Central Michigan was junior guard Derrick Butler who had 19 points and made a game high four three pointers.
Graduate guard Brian Taylor also had an all-around performance as he had 17 points while adding eight rebounds and six assists.
The biggest bucket for Taylor was after a steal, CMU had a two on one fast break where guard Paul McMillan IV lobbed it up to him where he slammed down a big dunk that forced Kent State to take a timeout.
Every Chippewa who entered the game got into the score column. Junior’s Markus Harding and Anthony Pritchard both had double-digit scoring with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Former CMU guard Reggie Bass who was the MAC Freshman of the Year in 2023, was welcomed back into Mt. Pleasant, this time playing for the Golden Flashes.
The Chippewa faithful let him hear it anytime he touched the ball, and he didn’t get the revenge he was hoping for, finishing the game with only eight points and a loss.
The Chippewas will look to continue their win streak on Tuesday when they travel to Athens, Ohio to take on the Ohio Bobcats at 7 p.m.
