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MOUNT PLEASANT – Central Michigan was out-played from the beginning in a 73-52 loss to Ball State Wednesday night, despite holding the Mid-American Conference's second-leading scorer to just four points.
The Cardinals' (11-5, 3-1 MAC) Jerrod Jones, who entered the game averaging 17.3 points per contest, scored just one basket in each half against Andre Coimbra and the Chippewas (7-10, 2-2 MAC), but Ball State found scoring elsewhere, hitting 52 percent from the field in the first half and 57 percent in the second.
"Andre did a tremendous job as Jerrod was a focus for us tonight, but unfortunately it's a team game and we needed a complete team effort," said head coach Ernie Zeigler.
A three-pointer by the Chippewas' leading scorer, Austin McBroom, at the 15:15 mark brought Central within one, 10-9, but it was one of just two field goals over the next 8:45 for the Chippewas, who were outscored 16-3 during the stretch and found themselves down 14 with 6:41 left.
The early Ball State lead was due in part to 6-of-9 shooting by the second media timeout, including 4-of-5 from guard Tyrae Robinson who scored the team's first eight points and 10 of the Cardinals' first 15 after entering the contest averaging just 8.3 points.
"Congratulations to Ball State," said Zeigler. "They came out with an extreme sense of purpose. We started to take rushed shots versus moving the ball, cutting hard and playing off each other as we had been doing."
McBroom finished with 16 points, including 11 in the second half, and Robinson had a game-high 20.
Courtesy of Central Michigan Athletics
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