Chippewas use strong defense to roll St. Francis 91-39
Iowa City, Iowa senior Devontae Lane gets a rebound over his opponent of St. Francis, Monday, Dec. 14, at McGuirk Arena.
Central Michigan’s men’s basketball team knew the first half was closer than it needed to be.
Within the first nine minutes of the second half, the Chippewas erased any doubt of leaving McGuirk Arena without their third straight win.
A 20-2 Chippewa run early in the second half put St. Francis in the rearview mirror, and CMU won it's third straight outing, 91-39, to get back to .500 on the season.
"Our guys gave great effort," Davis said. "Without a live practice, we thought that bringing St. Francis would help us prepare for the conference season because they've got some great shooters and can do some things defensively to frustrate you."
The Chippewas were once again thin in the frontcourt, playing without senior Braden Burke and redshirt freshman Caleb Hodgson — similar to CMU's win over Valparaiso on Saturday. Davis again relied on freshman Aundre Polk and junior Malik Muhammad to do the majority of work against a Fighting Saints team that didn‘t have a player taller than six-foot-eight on roster.
Polk, who stands six-foot-10, took advantage of a defender standing nearly five inches shorter on the game's opening possession and bullied his way to the rim to open the scoring. Muhammad, playing in his second game with the Chippewas, struggled once again with foul trouble but contributed five points and seven rebounds.
The Chippewas led 24-11 at the under-eight media timeout and would stretch that advantage to 22, 38-16, on an alley-oop from senior guard Travon Broadway Jr. to junior guard Meikkel Murray with just over two minutes to go in the first half.
St. Francis was able to trim the deficit to 13, 38-25, on the heels of a 7-0 run to end the half. That, however, was the closest the game would get. Junior guard Matt Beachler opened the second half with a jumper, Broadway Jr. followed with one of his own and the rout was on.
"That run that they put on us at the end of the first half was probably the best thing that could've happened to us," Davis said. "It got our guys focused on what we needed to do to take another step forward on the defensive end."
The Fighting Saints waited nearly five minutes into the second half to score their first points after the break, with junior forward Carter Fayhee converting a jump shot attempt. Those would be the last points for nearly four more minutes for St. Francis, which trailed 60-27 when Carlos Tovias hit a jump shot of his own.
Murray led the Chippewas with 15 points and eight rebounds. Junior guard Caleb Huffman scored 11 points and junior forward Ralph Bissainthe added 10. Polk scored eight points and grabbed six rebounds.
"It feels good, but I've got to give it up to my team," Murray said. "They found me on some lobs, some fast breaks. They put me in a position to be successful."
The final eight minutes were full of firsts for CMU, as freshmen guards Dylan Jergens and Ra'Shad Weekly-McDaniels each scored their first career points, as did senior forward Tyler Hankins — who also plays on the Chippewa baseball team. Jergens finished with eight points, while Weekly-McDaniels added five.
Fayhee led St. Francis with seven points. Tovias added six and Lewis Holey scored five.
CMU (3-3) next takes the court at 2 p.m. Dec. 18 at Western Michigan (1-4).
