Eagles Head to Mount Pleasant For Mid-Week Matchup With Chips

YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) - After knocking off Mid-American Conference West Division leading Western Michigan University, 50-49, in overtime, the Eastern Michigan University men's basketball team will travel to Mount Pleasant, Mich. for a contest with the Chippewas of Central Michigan University, Tuesday, March 5. Tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. at McGuirk Arena.
    Eastern is now 14-15 on the 2012-13 campaign and 7-7 in conference play, holding down the number three spot in the West Division. Redshirt senior Derek Thompson is leading the offensive charge for the Green and White, posting 10.6 points per game, while redshirt junior Glenn Bryant is putting up 10.5. Daylen Harrison is averaging 8.8 points and 5.0 rebounds, while fellow transfer Da'Shonte Riley has led Eastern on the glass, hauling in 5.8 rebounds a game this season. Freshman Jalen Ross has dished out 74 assists, good for 2.6 per game, which tops EMU.
    The Chippewas come into Tuesday's matchup with a record of 10-18 overall, while settling at a 3-11 mark in MAC games this season. Kyle Randall has shined offensively for the Chips posting 17.6 points per game, while John Simons has been their force on the boards with 5.1 caroms per contest. Chris Fowler has dished out 5.4 helpers per game this season to lead CMU.

FINDING THE GAME AT HOME: The Eagles' contest with the Broncos will be broadcast on WEMU (89.1 FM). Veteran play-by-play voice Chad Bush will be on the call from McGuirk Arena. Pre-game coverage of the matchup will begin at 6:50 p.m.

ALL-TIME VERSUS CENTRAL MICHIGAN: Tuesday night's game will be the 184th all-time meeting between Central and Eastern. The Chippewas hold the all-time series edge, 97-86. EMU and the Chippewas first met during the 1905-06 campaign when Wilbur P. Bowen was in his third season at the helm. The then-Normalites defeated Central Michigan, 24-19, Feb. 9, 1906. That team went 4-4 on the season.

THE LAST TIME WE MET: EMU's defense posted a season-high eleven blocks and was anchored by forward Glenn Bryant who denied a season-high five shots. Jalen Ross led the Eagles in scoring with 13 points and was one-of-three EMU players to hit double figures. Jamell Harris posted 11 points, while Bryant notched 10. Harris also had three blocked shots while Da'Shonte Riley rejected a pair of Chippewa attempts.
    As a team, EMU shot 16-of-32 (50 percent) from the floor and CMU went 19-of-59 (32.2 percent). The Eagles also shot a blistering 54.5 percent (6-of-11) from long range including a 5-of-6 showing in the opening 20 minutes.

IN SEARCH OF A STREAK: Winning two in a row is nice, but a winning streak would be nicer. The Eagles have not won three-straight since they swept the 2012 EMU “Ice Man” Classic, and then topping Maddona University for a four-game win streak, Nov. 16-24. If the Green and White can knock off Central, it will have won three-straight games and have won three MAC games in a row for the first time since the 2011-12 campaign. Toward the end of last season the Eagles defeated Northern Illinois, Feb. 22, 48-45, then Ball State, Feb. 25, 61-50, and finally, Western Michigan, Feb. 29, 54-53, in consecutive games.

SCORING MACHINE: First-year Eagle Glenn Bryant has proved to be quite the offensive threat for Eastern this season. Bryant is averaging 10.5 points per game, but more impressively he has had double-figure performances in 18 games in his first year donning the Green and White. Before transferring from Arkansas, Bryant averaged just 3.3 points per game, while playing just over 11 minutes per contest for the Razorbacks.

DIFFERENCE IN PLAY: Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan play two very different styles between the two of them. The Eagles use their defense to win games, while CMU tends to let their point scoring ability do the work. Eastern scores just 56.6 points per game, while the Chips are putting up 67.5 points. EMU also holds opponents to just 59 points, while Central allows a much larger margin of 72.2 points a game.

EMU'S CAREER DIVISIONAL RECORD: The Mid-American Conference has had West-East Divisional competition since 1997-98. A complete list of divisional play is listed below.

EMU IN MAC DIVISIONAL PLAY

Year	MAC Record	Overall Record	Divisional Place
1997-98	13-5	20-10	3rd-West
1998-99	5-13	5-20	5th-West
1999-00	9-9	15-13	3rd-West
2000-01	1-17	3-25	6th-West
2001-02	2-16	6-24	6th-West
2002-03	8-10	14-14	T-4th-West
2003-04	7-11	13-15	5th-West
2004-05	5-13	12-18	6th-West
2005-06	3-15	7-21	5th-West
2006-07	6-10	13-19	4th-West
2007-08	8-8	14-17	T-2nd-West
2008-09	6-10	8-24	4th-West
2009-10	8-8	17-15	T-2nd-West
2010-11	5-11	9-22	T-4th-West
2011-12	9-7	14-18	1st-West
2012-13	7-7	14-15	3rd-West

A TAIL OF TWO TEAMS: EMU has shown impressive offensive and defensive efficiency against teams from the MAC West Division during the 2012-13 campaign. Although they are scoring just 54 points per game in contests against West Division opponents, the Eagles are shooting an astounding 42.3 percent from the floor, while hitting 33.3 percent of their shots from beyond the arc. Eastern is 5-3 in games against the West. Defensively, EMU allows just 50 points per game against teams from its division.
Conversely, in games against the East Division, the Green and White is scoring 58 points per game, while allowing 61.7 per game. The Eagles shoot under 40 percent in games against the East Division, while holding a 2-4 record in those six games. In games against East Division opponents, the opposition is shooting a solid 44.3 percent from the floor, while Da'Shonte Riley averages just one block a game. In games against the West, Riley blocks nearly two shots per game. Also, Eastern has not won a road game against a team from the East Division.

SIMSANITY!: Since joining the starting lineup against Ball State, Feb. 16, J.R. Sims is averaging a team-best 10.2 points per game, while shooting a blistering 17-of-41 (41.5 percent) from the floor and 10-of-22 (45.5 percent) from three-point land. He is also playing 31.2 minutes per game.
Prior to joining the starting lineup he saw just 18.7 minutes a game, while posting 4.5 points with a 36.5 shooting percentage.

NEXT ON THE DOCKET, TOLEDO: After traveling to Central Michigan, Eastern will play host to Toledo, March 9, for Senior Day, at the Convocation Center. Tip is scheduled for noon, while Matt Balkema, Jamell Harris and Derek Thompson will be honored prior to the game for their successful careers as members of the EMU men's basketball program.
The Eagles dropped a road contest to Toledo, 60-52, earlier this season, Feb. 9. Glenn Bryant scored nine to follow Daylen Harrison. Da'Shonte Riley added six points and four blocks to go along with 13 rebounds, tying his career-high. The Eagles could only muster 33.9 percent from the floor, making 20-of-59 attempts including 4-of-17 from beyond the arc.

ALL ROADS LEAD TO CLEVELAND: With the 2013 FirstEnergy Mid-American Conference Men's Basketball Tournament approaching, teams are jockeying for position, trying to get the best seed possible in Cleveland, Ohio. Currently, Eastern Michigan would be the No. 6-seed at Quicken Loans Arena. After tying for the fifth-best record in conference play this season, the Eagles would earn the fifth seed due to Toledo being ineligible for postseason play as well as losing the tiebreaker scenarios with Kent State and Buffalo. (For complete seeding details flip to page 22 of these notes)

THAT WAS A HEARTBREAKER: EMU held a 13 point lead over Missouri State, Feb. 23, with 6:20 left in the game and an eight point edge, 29-21, at the half inside the Convocation Center. The Eagles were outscored by 11 points, 36-25, in the second half to drop their fourth home contest of the 2012-13 campaign, 57-54. This was the biggest lead that EMU had surrendered all season in a loss. The biggest lead given up previously this season was when Eastern lost a 10-point lead against Western Michigan, Jan. 23, and fell, 63-59.

Eastern Michigan Athletics

Eagles Head to Mount Pleasant For Mid-Week Matchup With Chips

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