Marcus Keene leads men's basketball past Slippery Rock in exhibition game
The Marcus Keene era has officially begun.
The junior guard and Youngstown State transfer, who sat out the entire 2015-16 season due to NCAA transfer rules, scored the first 12 points of the game as the Central Michigan men's basketball team downed Slippery Rock 91-74 in an exhibition Saturday at McGuirk Arena.
Keene went 4-of-4 from 3-point range in the first three minutes as the Chippewas jumped out to a 12-2 advantage. He finished the game with 32 points.
“It feels good," Keene said. "I wasn’t nervous or anything like that. I was anxious for this day for a whole year.”
After missing the entire 2015-16 season due to a torn ACL, senior forward Blake Hibbitts entered the game with 12:48 left in the first half, receiving applause from the crowd. He finished with three points and two rebounds.
“It’s great to have somebody out there not only with his experience but with his leadership," said Head Coach Keno Davis of Hibbitts. "It’s nice that he’s going to be finish is career off playing (basketball). It’s another way for him to make his mark on the program and on the team.”
Slippery Rock cut the lead to three, 39-36, in the first half and trailed 43-39 at halftime. Keene said the coaching staff got on the team at halftime about not rebounding or playing hard.
“We wanted to set the tempo in the second half about playing hard on the defensive end of the floor," he said.
CMU shot 62.5 percent from the floor in the second half to finish the game with a 48.1 percent clip.
In addition to Keene's 32 points, Meyer added 14 and Cecil Williams scored 10, while pulling down six rebounds and knocking down 8-of-12 free throws in his first start.
Senior guard Braylon Rayson was held to seven points, three of which were on free throws. Keene knows when Rayson gets going, the two can be a dominant duo.
"Obviously I know he can get hot quickly," Keene said. "I know he’s feeling (it) right now. He’s probably going to get back in the gym and come Friday, he’s going to light it up.”
The Chippewas host IU-Kokomo at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 11. After losing in the first round of Mid-American Conference Tournament last season, Meyer said he forgot about the past a long time ago and is ready to move into the future.
“I feel like every day we get better at something, which is the goal," Meyer said. "I think we've done that so far. We may struggle in one area, but we get better in others. As long as we keep doing that, we’ll be a pretty good team.”
