CMU men's basketball falls in final seconds of home opener
Central Michigan's senior guard Anthony Pritchard defends against Stony Brook on Thursday, Nov. 7 at McGuirk Arena. (CM-Life | Mary Nowosacki)
With 3.9 seconds left in the game, Central Michigan men’s basketball trailed by one with a chance to inbound a potential buzzer beater. The ball was passed into play to senior guard Anthony Pritchard who streaked down the court as the clock ticked closer to zero.
Pritchard heaved a shot from behind the arc taking contact on the release but the shot failed to find the basket and no foul was called, causing CMU to lose to Stony Brook 73-72 on Thursday.
The loss puts the Chippewas at 1-1.
“We didn't want to let any games slip at home this year, we let the first one go, it's very disappointing,” head coach Tony Barbee said. “It’s disappointing when we had full control of the game.”
The game got off to a sluggish start with both offenses struggling to find consistent looks. Stony Brook jumped out to an early 11-6 lead with 12 minutes remaining in the first half.
The momentum swung back in favor of the Chippewas just a minute later as junior Damarion Bonds buried back-to-back threes in his CMU debut to tie the game at 17.
“He (Bonds) has the chance to be an electric scorer, and we got a small glimpse of what he has the ability to do,” Barbee said. “That’s why we recruited Damarion because he’s an electric scorer.”
The game continued to be a stalemate for the rest of the half until Central Michigan put together a 7-2 run in the final three minutes to give the Chippewas a 36-30 lead going into halftime.
CMU continued the momentum coming out of halftime by forcing back-to-back turnovers that led to points to give the Chippewas a 42-33 lead early in the second half.
With 13:44 remaining in the game Bonds fought through contact to score under the basket, but went down holding his left leg causing the Chippewas to lose the game's leading scorer to a cramp.
“People don’t know but we’ve just been so injured,” Barbee said. “We haven’t gone five on five in practice the entire preseason and when we have it’s been against managers and coaches. Not excuses, it just is what it is.”
CMU bounced back after the injury with back-to-back alley-oops from Pritchard to Jakobi Heady, giving Central Michigan a 63-53 lead.
Stony Brook clawed back with an 8-2 run that cut the gap to 65-61 in favor of the Chippewas with five minutes left to play.
SBU continued to fight back offensively and defensively and with 59 seconds remaining they tied the game at 71.
The Seawolves intentionally fouled Anthony Pritchard with 24.7 seconds remaining, sending him to the free-throw line. Pritchard made the first shot giving Central Michigan a 72-71 lead, but missed the second allowing CMU forward Bryan Ndjonga to come down with his third rebound of the night.
Stony Brook intentionally fouled Ndjonga once again sending the Chippewas to the line with 23.1 seconds remaining.
Ndjonga missed both free throws, giving the ball to SBU which allowed Stony Brook freshman Collin O’Connor to drive to the basket for a layup to make it a 73-72 game in favor of the Seawolves with 3.9 seconds remaining.
The ball was inbounded to Pritchard who was able to get the shot off through contact, but it was no good and the Chippewas fell to Stony Brook.
“We missed three straight free throws, make the free throws and the game is over,” Barbee said. “Then defensively we don't execute, we knew exactly what to do on that high ball screen because we knew what was coming, and we do the opposite.”
Central Michigan will head on the road to play No. 18 Marquette in Milwaukee on Monday at 9 p.m.
