Men's basketball pulls away in second half to down NAIA foe Lourdes
Chris Fowler attempts to make a basket during the Chippewas' game against Texas Southern at McGuirk Arena on Dec. 3.
With three seconds remaining in the first half, Central Michigan men's basketball senior guard Chris Fowler made a layup, drew a foul and hit the free throw to extend his team's lead to 40-37 against Lourdes, a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).
The Chippewas thought they were going into the locker room with a three-point lead after 20 minutes. But the Gray Hawks' E.J. Blackwell drained a 3-pointer from the corner to tie the game at 40 heading into the break.
Lourdes responded to CMU throughout most of the first half. The Gray Hawks went on a 7-0 run after CMU junior guard Braylon Rayson scored to start the game. CMU Head Coach Keno Davis said his team needed to defend better in the second half.
"They made some great shots in the first half, some well defended ones, and we needed just maybe to get another step closer and play a little better team defense," Davis said.
The Chippewas heard their coach's message and outscored the Gray Hawks 47-26 in the final 20 minutes of play to beat Lourdes 87-66 and close out 2015 with a victory at McGuirk Arena on New Year's Eve.
CMU (7-6) ends nonconference play with a win and will begin its Mid-American Conference season next Wednesday.
“The exciting thing for us going into conference play is that we can beat anybody on our schedule but we also understand we are at the point in our program where we can come out and not play well and be able to get wins," Davis said.
The Chippewas began to pull away from Lourdes with 12:50 remaining in the second half, when redshirt sophomore guard Josh Kozinski drained a 3-pointer to give CMU a 53-46 lead, its largest of the game up to that point.
Kozinski's three was the beginning of a 17-2 CMU run in the second half, which included six consecutive points from senior forward John Simons.
Rayson followed Simons by scoring nine straight points to push the CMU lead to 74-53 with 4:51 to play in the second half.
“I thought our guys played a little harder and took a little more initiative to being able to defend and guard," Davis said. "I thought it was a nice second half to be able to send our guys into the new year."
CMU fell to William & Mary 88-84 in Williamsburg, Virginia, on Tuesday night. Davis said he was confident his team would rebound from the loss.
“Sometimes you look ahead to the conference season after the short turnaround from William & Mary but we knew we had a talented team coming in here and we had to play well to win,” he said.
Rayson led CMU with 19 points, while Fowler added 18. Senior guard Rayshawn Simmons scored 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds and senior guard Austin Stewart poured in nine points and five rebounds. The Chippewas shot nearly 54 percent from the floor and were 6-of-21 from 3-point range.
Blackwell led Lourdes (7-8) with 23 points. Daniel Steen added 10 points and six rebounds.
“What you see tonight is what college basketball is about," Davis said. "You can have upsets and other teams from other divisions beat Division I opponents if you’re not playing your best."
CMU will begin its MAC schedule when it hosts Eastern Michigan at 7 p.m. on Jan. 6 at McGuirk Arena.
“To start off the conference season, hopefully we’ll get a lot of fans to come out with our students not being here," Davis said. "We’ll take (Friday) off and then we’ll start preparation.”
