CMU men's basketball wins double overtime thriller over NIU
With one second remaining in overtime, sophomore guard Paul McMillan IV hit two free throws, giving Central Michigan men’s basketball a 72-70 lead over Northern Illinois.
As it looked like the game may be over, NIU threw the ball down court that drew a foul and sent sophomore center Yanic Konan Niederhauser to the free throw line, where he knocked down both free throws sending the game to double overtime all tied at 72.
In double overtime, CMU built a seven point lead that NIU couldn’t comeback from, giving the Chippewas an 84-77 win on Tuesday.
The win brings CMU to 12-9 on the season and 7-2 in Mid-American Conference play, its best start since the 2000-01 season. It is also the first time the team has won four-straight games under head coach Tony Barbee.
“It was revealed in that moment we had adversity, and we showed the kind of championship mental. We showed the kind of championship grit that it takes,” Barbee said.
It was a struggle for the Chippewas to get going early, as they found themselves down 9-2 five minutes into the contest, before battling back to take the lead two minutes later 10-9.
CMU quickly lost that lead as NIU would go on a 11-2 run in the following five minutes to build an 11-point lead with three minutes to play in the half.
Before the end of the half, junior guard Anthony Pritchard got back-to-back buckets with one being a difficult shot at the buzzer to cut the lead to 36-30.
Coming out of the half NIU continued to build its lead to double-digit points and hold it like that for a majority of the half, even building its lead to 13 with 12 minutes remaining.
“You have to find a way then to raise your level and I just kept saying, 'look, it's not too late,'” Barbee said on his team being down. “First half, every time out, second half, every media timeout, it got to about eight minutes where I was saying the same thing, so I was getting a little nervous.”
In the following five minutes CMU cut at the Huskies' lead eventually getting it within two. The Chippewas would take the lead on a pair of Pritchard free throws with 4:10 remaining in the game.
A minute later, Pritchard exited the game with an apparent shoulder injury. But his presence was already made felt as he had already scored 16 points, which was a team high at the time.
Filling in for Pritchard was McMillan IV, who then exploded on offense, ending of the game scoring 14 points combined in both overtimes.
“Paul's a confident kid and we've have confidence in him,” Barbee said. “He's been a spark for us off the bench… and then fill in in some pretty big shoes with what Pritchard has brought to the table and Paul stepped in and didn't miss a beat and ran our team flawlessly from the point guard position in our offense.”
McMillan finished the game with a team high 21 points, along with being 9-9 from the free throw line. Some of which were in the closest moments of the game.
The two teams battled it out in both overtimes, but it would be CMU who was able to pull away in the second overtime frame.
Graduate guard Brian Taylor also had an impressive stat line. Taylor played 43 of the possible 50 minutes in the game and recorded a double-double having 13 points and 12 rebounds.
“It’s what you get from a ninth-year senior,” Barbee jokingly said about Brian Taylor. “He's seen it all. He's been in a lot of situations, and he delivered tonight with his rebounding, defending leadership, free throws, he made some big plays.”
“It was a dog fight tonight," Taylor said. It was a tough one. But it feels good. We stuck to our principles didn't give up and kept fighting.”
Junior forward Markus Harding also was hurt in the game after getting hit in the head. Prior to the injury he scored 18 points and also had nine rebounds in 42 minutes.
As CMU’s offense struggled, the defense was a bright spot again. The defense had only allowed 63 points at the end of regulation which is lower than CMU’s average points per game.
Central Michigan forced NIU into 14 turnovers while stealing the ball seven times. CMU turned those turnovers into 23 points as where NIU only scored 11 points off of 13 Chippewa turnovers.
CMU will head on the road for three games, with the first stop being in Bowling Green, Ohio to take on the Falcons on Saturday at 5 p.m.
