Men’s basketball tops Toledo, keeps up in MAC race
Braylon Rayson was worried after hurting his knee in Saturday’s loss to Ball State. He reentered the game, but CMU’s top scorer finished with three points.
The junior guard erased all concern, Tuesday, leading the Central Michigan men’s basketball team with 26 points and nine rebounds in a 77-69 win over Toledo.
“(My mindset was) just to get back out there, just to get back healthy,” Rayson said. “Having a knee injury was kind of scary for a minute because I’m already short.”
The 5-foot-9 Dallas native tied a career-high with seven 3-pointers. An early 20 points helped his team to a 16-point halftime lead over the Rockets.
Toledo (16-10, 7-6 MAC) reeled in the Chippewas (14-12, 7-6 Mid-American Conference), cutting the deficit to three points twice in the final six minutes.
With 29 seconds to play, senior guard Chris Fowler used a flat screen as the shot clock ticked down to drive to the lane and make a layup, giving his team a five-point advantage in front of the 2,139 fans in attendance.
Ten first-half 3-pointers propelled the Chippewas early on, but it was drives into the lane and free throws that helped CMU late to weather the Rocket comeback attempt.
CMU had lost three straight while Toledo was on a four-game winning streak.
“After a win, you feel better about what you’re doing,” said Head Coach Keno Davis. “I think (it’s) important for us to be able to go back to the practice court and feel like we have all the answers or that we’re playing well enough.”
Davis and Fowler cited the ability to draw fouls as something the team needs to improve on to stay in the Mid-American Conference race.
“We’ve got to do a better job of putting our head down and attacking in terms of getting to the free-throw line early,” Fowler said.
Scouting Boothe
Toledo senior 6-foot-9, 250-pound center Nathan Boothe caused problems for CMU, specifically in the second half. He finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds.
“The more you watch film, the more you’re not looking forward to guarding him,” Davis said. “For us, as funny as it might seem, holding him to 23 was a big key for us because he can beat teams singlehandedly.”
NBA scouts from the Detroit Pistons, Golden State Warriors and Utah Jazz came to McGuirk Arena Tuesday to watch Boothe.
The race
Entering Tuesday, one game separated the second place and eighth-place team in the MAC. Only two of the seven teams lost — Toledo and Buffalo — meaning the same gap still exists between second and eighth.
If the season ended Tuesday, CMU would be the seventh seed in the MAC Tournament, gaining the one spot over the Rockets. The Chippewas take on Western Michigan (10-16, 4-9 MAC) at 2 p.m. Saturday in Kalamazoo.
