A three-pointer from sophomore forward Blake Hibbits with 13 seconds remaining gave the Central Michigan men's basketball team its first road win of the season, a 68-64 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Tuesday night at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Hibbits led CMU (4-3) with 15 points, all from 3-point field goals, and was one of three scorers in double figures. Sophomore guard Chris Fowler added 13 points and five assists while sophomore John Simons had 11 points.

The Chippewas shot 44 percent from the field but missed timely free throws down the stretch that could have allowed them to put the game away sooner. They also struggled with their interior defense, continuing the implementation of a new man-defense introduced last week, leaving head coach Keno Davis slyly scratching his head as to how this youthful team won.

"I don't know," Davis said. "But we found a way.

"Going on the road with a young team, that's kind of how you describe it. You've got to be able to make enough plays."

And just as it looked like they might let the game slip away, CMU came up big down the stretch. The Chippewas shot 76 percent from the free throw line, but it was two misses that allowed Corpus Christi to hang around.

Fowler, with an opportunity to up his team's lead to two, maybe three points with 2:04 left, missed the front end of a 1-and-1. Simons did the same thing 30 seconds later and the Islanders regained a 61-60 lead with 1:13 to play.

Known for his leadership and fundamental ball handling skills, Fowler regained himself with 55 seconds remaining, drawing a foul and knocking down both free throws. Senior Austin Keel followed suit, fouled intentionally after he nabbed a steal immediately after Hibbits' game-winning 3-pointer.

The Chippewas made five of their final six free throws, going 22-for-29 in the game.

"It seemed like we missed so many free throws out there tonight, but we shot 76 percent," Davis said. "That'll probably be like Top 50 in the country or higher. I'm sure somebody's looking it up right now.

"When you have a bad free throw night and are shooting 76 percent, it shows what a weapon it really is."

The streaky Chippewas got out to a strong start, going 6-for-7 from the field in the first half and opening up a 15-8 lead. But as it was all night, the Islanders just wouldn't go away. A 10-point lead midway through the first half was chopped to 3 at half, and a 9-point lead with 14:53 left became tied five minutes later.

Targeting an exposed interior, Corpus Christi found 6-foot-10, 240-pound forward Zane Knowles (16 points on 7-of-8 shooting, 13 rebounds) often. The Islanders outrebounded the Chippewas on both sides of the ball, particularly on offense where they scored 12 second-chance points on 12 offensive rebounds.

Davis said CMU implemented a new man-to-man defense late last week during the Central Michigan Tournament that still needs some fine-tuning.

"We're going to have to do some things Xs and Os-wise to get the ball out of the post," Daivs conceded. "I'm not so worried about the positioning or execution because threw something brand new at them because we weren't able to get stuff done in the half court that we liked to see.

"We're going to continue to work on our man-to-man defense in practice, but we're a ways away from that being our primary defense."

The Islanders (3-5) were without leading scorer John Jordan (14.9 points), who sat out of the game with a bad ankle.

CMU returns home to play Jacksonville State at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Contact Aaron McMann: aaron.mcmann@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @AaronMcMann.