CMU basketball knocks off Alma College in 89-50 win
Sophomore center Nicolas Pavrette shoots over a defender during a game against Alma on Saturday, Dec. 3 in McGuirk Arena.
With just 7:49 remaining in the second half, senior guard Marc Garland caught a pass, squared his feet, and nailed a three-pointer - the Chippewas’ first of the game.
But it didn’t matter anymore as Central Michigan men's basketball beat Alma College by a margin of 39 points as it cruised to an 89-50 victory on Saturday.
The win pushes CMU’s record to 4-4, while Alma moves to 3-4 on the season.
“It’s kind of what we want to do every game,” Barbee said. “Create offense off of our defense. I thought we did that tonight. We held (Alma’s) offense to a pretty low shooting percentage.”
As a team, CMU ended with 13 steals, however, the Chippewas also turned the ball over 19 times.
The Scots deployed a full-court press and going into halftime, CMU had committed 12 turnovers.
“We just talked about it (at halftime),” Barbee said. “Our goal every game is to have 12 or fewer turnovers, and Brian Taylor had five of the 12 (first-half turnovers) himself. But that wasn’t against the press. It was just him trying to make plays and being sloppy with his ball handling. We just gotta get guys to be more efficient and more effective with the basketball.”
Despite the turnover issues, the Chippewas recorded 64 points in the paint, as sophomore center Nicolas Pavrette added 25 points, shooting 12-for-12 from the floor. He also secured six rebounds and blocked two shots.
Pavrette’s shooting performance tied a Mid-American Conference record for most FG attempts made without a miss, which also set CMU’s record. He was three FGs shy of the NCAA record. His 25 points were a career high.
“My teammates gave me a lot of good looks,” Pavrette said. “(They threw me) lobs, which will help build confidence. We kept playing hard and defense turned to offense.”
The Chippewas were without guards Kevin Miller, Jesse Zarzuela and Emil Skytta, as well as center Markus Harding.
Miller, Zarzuela and Harding all missed the last game, while Skytta was a new addition to the injury list. All four players have started in at least one game this season.
Due to the growing list of injured players, freshmen guard Amani Drummond and freshman forward Ola Ajiboye both logged their first career starts.
Drummond chipped in six points, two rebounds, three assists and two steals, while Ajiboye scored six points to go along with a team-high 11 rebounds, four assists and three steals.
CMU returns to action on Wednesday as it welcomes Robert Morris to McGuirk Arena at 7 p.m.
