Mt. Pleasant, Mich. - The Alma College men's basketball team made the short trip north on US-127 on Tuesday (Nov. 17) evening to face Central Michigan University, the defending Mid-American Conference champions. Central led from start to finish, but the Scots made the game competitive, ultimately falling by a 79-64 margin to the NCAA Division I Chippewas at McGuirk Arena.
The game was designated as an exhibition contest for the Scots (0-1 overall, 0-0 MIAA) so the game and statistics will not count for Alma. It was an official game for the host Chippewas (2-0, 0-0 MAC).
Senior DJ Beckman (Shelby, Mich./Shelby) led the Scots with 16 points, while senior Scott Nikodemski (Rockford, Mich./Rockford) netted 15 points and added a team-best seven assists. Junior Chase Fairchild (Rockford, Mich./Rockford) scored 14 points, while junior Trevor Gernaat(McBain, Mich./Northern Michigan Christian) pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds.
Central Michigan jumped out to an 8-0 lead before Fairchild drained a three-pointer to put the Scots on the board. Alma cut the lead to 11-9 CMU at 14:20 of the half and had a chance to take the lead, but Central responded with an 11-2 run to open up a double-digit lead that they would hold for the rest of the half. Alma trailed by as many as 18 points in the opening half, but used its three-point shooting to pull within 10 late in the opening stanza, but a late bucket by Central sent Alma into the break down 42-30.
In the second half, the Scots came out firing and cut the deficit to six points behind two threes from Beckman to make the score 44-38 with 18:09 left. The Chips answered, scoring 14 of the game's next 16 points to go up by 18, their largest lead of the night. Alma would get as close as 10 points with 8:09 remaining, but could not get any closer before the final buzzer.
The Chippewas, missing their star guard Chris Fowler, were led by Rayshawn Simmons' 18 points and John Simons, who posted a double-double with 16 points and 16 rebounds.
Alma shot .368 (25-68) from the field for the night, and struggled from the free throw line, making four of its 12 attempts (.333). The Scots held Central to .460 (29-63) from the field and forced the Chippewas to turn the ball over 11 times.
Alma will continue its' season-opening road trip this weekend, traveling to Delaware, Ohio, on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 20-21, to take part in the Great Lakes Challenge, hosting by Ohio Wesleyan University. The Scots will take on the 13th-ranked Battling Bishops at 7:30 p.m. on Friday before facing Waynesburg (Pa.) at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.
QUOTES
Head Coach Sam Hargraves
"I thought we really handled their (Central's) press well, we moved the ball well, we were smart with our passing and our decision making. The confidence we are going to gain from this is huge. Every game like this you start to believe in yourself more and believe that you are better and capable. I think we are going to take away a lot of confidence from this. The nice thing is that over time, the strength of our team is going to be our shooting, and we are doing everything else really well. Once that shooting comes, we could be awfully good. I thought our effort tonight was awesome."
