Men's Basketball Falls on the Road at Central Michigan

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) — The Eastern Michigan University men's basketball team could not overcome an early Central Michigan University lead and fell to the Chippewas, 55-52, here Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012, in the McGuirk Center.

The home team built a nine-point lead, 54-45, with 52.2 seconds left, but EMU would fight all the way to the end, getting it to three with 00.5 left on a triple by junior guard Derek Thompson (Detroit, Mich.-Melvindale-SEMO) but CMU would then get the ball safely inbounjds, thrwarting the Eagles' comeback. The win gave the Chippewas a 2-0 record against the Eagles this season.

Eastern, now 11-15 overall and 6-6 in MAC play, was led by Thompson with 18 points while junior center Jamell Harris (Euclid, Ohio-Euclid), added 10 points and seven rebounds.

Central Michigan, now 8-17 overall and 3-9 in MAC plays, was led by freshman point guard Austin McBroom with 14 while Trey Zeigler scored 11 with nine rebounds.

Eastern would finish the game shooting 41 percent, making 16-of-39 field-goal attempts, but the free throw line hurt the Eagles as they made just 16-of-25 charity tosses for 64 percent.

Central shot 46.9 percent from the field, making 23-of-49 shots and the Chips were 6-of-18 from behind the three-point line for 33.3 percent. CMU made just 3-of-10 free throws, but managed a big edge on the boards, 36-23.

Central came out on fire in the early stages of the first half, taking a 17-6 lead at the 11:08 mark after making five three-point field goals.

Eastern would gradually work its way back, cutting the Chippewa advantage to seven, 19-12, with 3:39 left after Matt Balkema (Roseville, Mich.-Warren Cousino) and Lampley both hit free throws.

After CMU went up 24-16 at the 1:05 mark on a lay-up by Zeigler, the Eagles would score the final four points of the half to trim the deficit to four, 24-20, at intermission.

EMU shot just 30 percent in the first half, making 6-of-20 field-goal attempts and just 1-of-5 triples for 20 percent. Those shooting woes carried over at the free throw line as well as Eastern made just 7-of-13 charity tosses for 53.8 percent.

After their quick start, the Chippewas cooled down to shoot just 37.5 percent, making 9-of-24 attempts but the home team made up for it from beyond the arc, hitting 6-of-13 triples for 46.2 percent.

The second half started slowly with both teams trying to find some consistency on offense, but Eastern would cut it to a one-point game three times from 12:39 to 11:53, with the last one a jumper by Anthony Strickland (Ypsilanti, Mich.-Dearborn Heights Robichaud).

McBroom would then take over for the Chippewas, scoring on three straight jumpers to boost the home team's lead back to 10, 42-32, the last one at the 7:52 mark.

The Chips would once again built a 10-point lead, but EMU refused to go away, currint it to six, 48-42, on two straight triples by Thompson, the last one at the 4:07 mark.

Eastern would get it to six, 55-49, with 14.9 left on a lay-up by Harris and Thompson would hit a long three with 00.5 left to cut the lead to three, 55-52.

Central would then get the ball inbounds without any further action as CMU would record the 55-52 win, breaking a nine-game losing streak.

The Eagles move out of Mid-American Conference action for the final time this regular season when they travel to Green Bay, Wisc., Saturday, Feb. 18, 2012, for a 1 p.m. (CT) matchup with the Green Bay Phoenix as part of the Sears BracketBuster event.

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Team Stats

Derek Thompson

Jamell Harris

Austin Harper

Darrell Lampley

Eastern Michigan Athletics