Central Michigan basketball downs Eastern Michigan, 55-52, to end 9-game losing streak
The Central Michigan basketball team hadn’t tasted victory since it traveled to Ypsilanti in early January.
When Eastern Michigan made its return visit to Mount Pleasant on Tuesday night, the Chippewas snapped a nine-game losing streak with a 55-52 win over the Eagles at the McGuirk Center.
Freshman guard Austin McBroom led the Chippewas (8-17, 3-9 MAC West) with 14 points, including three straight baskets during a key 10-3 run that gave Central Michigan a 46-36 lead with 5:21 left to play.
Eastern Michigan (11-15, 6-6) wouldn’t get back within six points until Derek Thompson hit a 3-point basket with 1 second left.
For the second straight game, Thompson came off the bench to lead the Eagles in scoring with 18 points. The junior guard scored a season-high 23 points in a win over Ohio on Saturday and is 12-of-18 shooting, including 7-of-9 from 3-point range, over the past two games.
It’s the fifth loss in seven games for the Eagles, who still maintain their MAC West lead. Second-place Ball State (12-11, 4-7) and Western Michigan (10-15, 4-7) can pull closer when they play Wednesday night.
Trey Zeigler added 11 points and nine rebounds for CMU. Jamell Harris finished with 10 points and seven rebounds for the Eagles.
Comments
lumberg48108
Wed, Feb 15, 2012 : 2:07 p.m.
EMU is improved but this is, at best, an average team in a weak division. With a chance to solidify its hold on first place it loses to a horrid CMU team? I read in a Detroit publication how the new coach is doing such a great job - and perhaps he is - but lets not get ahead of ourselves. The team is running out of gas quickly and will stumble to the finish line and have a less than .500 record. Good things to come? Sure! But not yet so please end all the stories about how the team has turned things around with the new coach. Those stories got old with the football coach when the team blew games and stumbled to a .500 record (beating only one team with a winning record.)