Central Michigan University
Lourdes
CMU Men Surge Past Lourdes, 87-66
12/31/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - The big moment on New Year's Eve comes when the clock strikes midnight.
For the Central Michigan men's basketball team, the wait-for-it moment finally came in the second half.
The Chippewas outscored Lourdes, 47-26, over the final 20 minutes Thursday in posting an 87-66 victory at McGuirk Arena in their final non-conference game of the season.
The win lifted CMU to 7-6. The Chippewas open Mid-American Conference play on Wednesday at home against Eastern Michigan (8-4).
CMU overcame a sluggish first half against the NAIA Grey Wolves. The game was tied, 40-40, at the break.
But there was no panic.
"Coach didn't yell at halftime, nothing was out of character for a normal halftime speech," CMU senior guard Chris Fowler said. "We're old enough to know that we didn't come to play the way we're supposed to in the first half.
"Credit (Lourdes) because they did make a lot of shots and they shot the ball well, but the energy and effort and the attention to detail on our part was not there. And we have to do a better job as an experienced team of coming out and playing up to our capabilities from minute one."
Braylon Rayson scored 13 of his 19 points in the second half to spark the Chippewas. Fowler added 18 points and five assists, and Rayshawn Simmons had 13 points.
E.J. Blackwell scored 23 points to lead Lourdes, which made six of its seven first-half 3-point attempts (85.7 percent). The Grey Wolves were 1-for-5 from long range in the final 20 minutes.
The Chippewas led, 48-46, with under 14 minutes to play, then went on a 19-2 run spanning about six minutes midway through the half to pull away.
Fowler started the spurt with a pair of free throws with 13:34 to play and Rayson ended it with a jumper, making it 67-48 with 7:12 left. Lordes never got closer than 16 the rest of the way.
"Subconsciously, I'm sure guys are probably looking at the Eastern game, but as a group we weren't, we never said anything about Eastern," Simmons said. "We took (Lourdes) very serious and they battled. It was a tie game, but they outplayed us in the first half."
The Chippewas forced Lourdes into 11 turnovers, eight of them in the second half, and held a commanding 39-20 rebounding edge.
"We have some guys who have been through this before," CMU coach Keno Davis said. "They understood that Lourdes made some really good plays, made some really tough shots, and that we needed to also up our effort, our defensive intensity going into that second half.
"We played a little better defensively in the second half, and also the pressure that we used to try to speed the game up I think can have a wearing-out effect on other teams."
CMU made just two of its 12 3-point attempts in the first half, and finished 6-for-21 (28.6 percent) from beyond the arc for the game. CMU entered the game averaging 11.1 triples per game, and the six matched its season-low.
Simmons and Luke Meyer grabbed seven boards apiece to lead the Chippewas. The 47 points scored was CMU's second-highest point output for a half this season.
