Central Michigan University
Northern Illinois
Late NIU Surge Dooms CMU Men
1/19/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
DeKALB, Ill. - Northern Illinois used a late 9-0 run Tuesday in handing the Central Michigan men's basketball team a 75-70 Mid-American Conference loss at the Huskies' Convocation Center.
It was the second-straight loss for CMU, which dropped to 9-9 overall, 2-3 MAC. NIU, which is ranked 22nd in the collegeinsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll, is 15-3, 4-1.
The Chippewas play host to Ohio in a MAC game on Saturday (4:30 p.m.). Three of CMU's next four games are at McGuirk Arena, where it is 8-1 this season.
"You're going to come off of this game and say, yeah, we had a chance to win, four minutes left, tie game, but how can we can get better in other areas and how can we improve as a team?" CMU coach Keno Davis said. "Because that's always the focus."
Travon Baker scored 19 points and Levi Bradley added 14 for NIU, which outrebounded the Chippewas, 38-32, including 11-5 on the offensive end. The Huskies are the MAC's top rebounding team.
Chris Fowler scored 16 points, Rayshawn Simmons had 14, Josh Kozinski added 12 and Braylon Rayson had 11 for the Chippewas, who committed 16 turnovers and led by 14 points with under four minutes to play in the first half.
NIU used a 16-1 run to seize a 42-41 lead - its first since the opening minute of the game - with under 17 minutes to play.
From there it was nip-and-tuck until the Huskies broke a 64-64 tie on a Marin Maric inside bucket with 2 minutes, 58 seconds remaining.
The triggered the game-clinching 9-0 spurt that left NIU in command, 73-64, with 18 seconds to play.
NIU made 16 of its 28 second-half field goal attempts. The Huskies finished 4-of-19 from 3-point range on the night.
"They played really well in stretches and made a lot of key shots, a lot of key plays," Davis said. "They shot an incredible percentage in the second half from two-point range, going 15 out of 19 from two. We did a nice job guarding them at the 3-point line the entire game.
"We've got to get better defensively. We know that. We weren't going to be able to solve that in two days (since the loss at Buffalo on Saturday). Can we solve it in the next month-and-a-half so that we've got a great chance to make a run in the conference tournament? That's yet to be seen."
The Chippewas made 10 of their 29 3-point tries - Kozinski finished 4-of-9 - but they struggled from the floor in the final 20 minutes, making just seven field goals on 22 attempts. They managed to stay in it by making 16 of their 23 free throw attempts.
Fowler finished with eight assists to go along with his 16 points.
"We have a very high standard for Chris," Davis said. "Chris isn't at full strength yet. His timing is off. I think as his timing goes we're going to get better. Credit for him to be able to find ways to get us back into that game when it looked like everything was going Northern's way in the second half."
