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CMU finally captures elusive first victory at new arena
Posted: 12.23.2010 at 12:10 AM
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Chips squeak past Cornerstone University, 63-60
Central Michigan earned its first win in McGuirk Arena on Wednesday night, defeating Cornerstone, 63-60.
MT. PLEASANT --
The Chippewas (3-9) were tied with the Golden Eagles (13-2), 46-46, with 6:59 to go in the second half before Jalin Thomas kicked off a 6-0 run with a baseline jumper. Trey Zeigler hit a jumper of his own on the next possession and an Amir Rashid steal led to a tip-in by Andre Coimbra with 5:30 to go for a 52-46 CMU lead.
Cornerstone's Ronald Bates knocked down a jumper to bring CU back within four, but Zeigler knocked down a layup three minutes later and Derek Jackson hit a baseline jumper to extend the lead to eight, 56-48, with 1:51 to go.
Finis Craddock hit a running floater with 1:07 remaining to give the Chippewas their last field goal of the game and the Golden Eagles fought back to bring it within three, 61-58, with nine seconds on the clock. Thomas cooly sank two free throws after he was fouled by Derek Kingshott to extend the lead back to 63-58. Bates made a layup with eight seconds remaining, but it would not be enough as the Chippewas held on to snap their season-long six-game losing streak.
Zeigler scored 13 of his game-high 19 points in the first half to give the Chippewas a four-point lead, 31-27. After the half, Kelvin DeVries finished a layup on an alley-oop from Caleb Simons and Simons made a layup of his own to tie the game for the first time, 33-33, at the 16:41 mark. The Golden Eagles took their first lead of the game three minutes later when Simons scored on an assist from Justin Yoder.
After Cornerstone took the lead, the two teams exchanged the lead or were tied 13 times over the next eight-plus minutes. Cornerstone took its final lead on a jumper from Kingshott, 45-43, before Thomas scored seven straight points to give the Chippewas the 48-46 lead.
"For us, a win is a win is a win," head coach Ernie Zeigler said. "We've gone three weeks since our last win. Momentum goes both ways, and for us momentum was making a downward spiral. We talked to our guys about fighting, fighting, fighting, and I feel really confident about how we were able to close a game out."
Thomas finished the game with 13 points, all of which came in the second half. Zeigler added nine rebounds to his 19 points and Jackson scored 10 points of the bench. William McClure contributed four blocks on the defensive end in 15 minutes off the bench.
"Jalin is a guy that can score a variety of ways," Zeigler said. "He found other ways; he got to the foul line and he helped get us over the hump."
The Golden Eagles were led by Bates who scored 16 points, including 2-of-3 from downtown. Kingshott and Bryan Pasciak scored 12 and 11 points respectively.
Central Michigan will have eight days off before it takes on UNLV in Las Vegas, Nev., on Dec. 30 at 10 p.m. EST.