Men's basketball can't complete comeback in loss to William & Mary
The Central Michigan men's basketball team trailed 83-75 with 39 seconds remaining against William & Mary.
The Chippewas used three 3-pointers from junior guard Braylon Rayson, sophomore guard Josh Kozinski and senior forward John Simons in that span to cut the Tribe lead to three, 87-84.
A missed three by Rayson with five seconds remaining and a William & Mary free throw at the other end cost the Chippewas its seventh non-conference victory in an 88-84 loss to the Tribe Tuesday night on the road.
CMU is now .500 in the win-loss column with a 6-6 record with one game remaining before Mid-American Conference play begins.
“An exciting game for fans, a frustrating one for us as players and as coaches in that there were so many breakdowns that we had, and yet the game goes down to the wire," CMU Head Coach Keno Davis told cmuchippewas.com.
The Chippewas shot 44 percent from the floor and were 12-of-37 from 3-point range, good for 32 percent. The game featured 14 lead changes and nine ties.
“I think that kind of shows where we are as a program, that we can come out and maybe not execute the way we needed to and maybe we didn’t do some of those little things in the game, and yet we didn’t lose our fight," Davis said.
Rayson led CMU offensively with 23 points, while senior guard Chris Fowler added 21. Senior guard Rayshawn Simmons scored 12 points and Simons recorded a double-double totaling 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Guard Omar Prewitt paced William & Mary (8-3) with 23 points.
“I give a lot of credit to William & Mary," Davis said. "They showed some of the weaknesses that we need to improve on as we head into the conference season in the next week.”
CMU will take on NAIA foe Lourdes (7-7) at 1 p.m. on New Year's Eve at McGuirk Arena in its final tuneup before conference play. The Chippewas will begin their MAC slate at home against Eastern Michigan at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016.
