Central Michigan University
McNeese State
CMU Men Hold Off McNeese State
11/30/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - Central Michigan went ice cold from the field in squandering a 14-point lead Monday, but had enough left in the tank to hold off McNeese State, 74-73, in a non-conference men's basketball game at McGuirk Arena.
The white-knuckling win snapped a three-game losing streak. Jamaya Burr's 3-point attempt at the buzzer hit the back of the iron and bounced away.
"I had a really good angle of it and it looked dead-on to me," CMU coach Keno Davis said of Burr's shot. "I thought when that shot was up it was in."
Rayshawn Simmons scored 16 points, Braylon Rayson had 12, and Luke Meyer added 11 to lead CMU (3-3), which goes to Phoenix on Thursday to play Dan Majerle-led Grand Canyon (5-0).
Rayson broke a 73-all tie with a free throw with 3.9 seconds left. The Chippewas went the final 12 minutes, 1 second without a field goal, but were 16-for-19 from the free throw line over the final 11:13 to hold off the Cowboys (1-5).
The Chippewas led by 14, 64-50, with under 10 minutes to play. McNeese stay employed a trapping full-court press to climb back in. They tied it at 73 on a Burr layup with 10 seconds left.
The Chippewas committed seven of their 10 turnovers in the second half.
"I've got to get over and get the ball," said Simmons, the Chippewas' point guard in the absence of the injured Chris Fowler. "I didn't go get the ball half the time. I was the point guard on the floor and I didn't have the ball in my hands. We have a press break and we didn't get into it. We didn't execute it very well."
The victory helped the Chippewas bounce back from their 0-3 performance last week in the Gulf Coast Showcase in Florida.
"Feels really good to win," said CMU's John Simons, who scored nine points and grabbed seven rebounds. "Regardless of how it finished and regardless of how it looked, whether people thought that shot was going to go in or not.
"It's a lot better to learn from a win than it is from a loss. If we lose that one coming back home, that one would have hurt a little bit and we would have had to dig a little deeper."
Stephen Ugochukwu scored 16 points and Craig McFerrin added 15 for the Cowboys.
Simons said the Chippewas became tentative against the Cowboys press late in the game
"We passed up some shots we were normally taking and didn't really try and attack the rim," he said. "Got ourselves into some bad situations. We just stopped playing the way we normally play. We dug ourselves into a little bit of hole. Better to learn this way then if that shot goes in at the end."
Davis said the game will serve the Chippewas well as they progress through the season.
"You have to be able to fight through," he said. "And sometimes, even though we've got some seniors and we've got some upperclassmen, you get disrupted and you've got to be able to not make one missed opportunity into two or three.
"We let our guys play through some of those (situations) rather than using those timeouts. Looking back at it maybe I should have used some of those (timeouts) and put them in a better position. But I think you only learn by going through that experience and I think our guys will be better for it."
