LYNCHBURG, Va. -- Central Michigan’s season came to an end Saturday as the Chippewas fell to Liberty 84-71 in CollegeInsider.com tournament action at the Vine Center.
The Chippewas finished 21-15 for their second-winningest season under sixth-year coach Keno Davis. It was also their second-highest win total since they went 25-7 in 2002-03.
THE LEADERS
David DiLeo and Josh Kozinski scored 19 points each to lead the Chippewas, and Shawn Roundtree Jr. added 12.
Ryan Kemrite tied his career high with seven 3-pointers en route to a game-high 21 points to lead the Flames (22-14). Scott James added 20 points.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Liberty closed the first half with a 9-0 run to forge a 39-39 halftime tie. The turning point came with just over 13 minutes to play, when Kemrite hit the first of back-to-back 3-pointers, and then Elijah Cuffee followed with another triple and Scott James scored inside, completing an 11-0 run and giving the Flames a 64-53 advantage with 9:18 left.
The Chippewas never got closer than nine points the rest of the way.
"The last thing I ever want to do as a coach is make excuses, and you don't want your players to make excuses,” CMU head coach Keno Davis said. But we just kind of hit a wall. I give Liberty credit; very talented team, they've got 22 wins and that means you're a good team out there. They beat Wake Forest and they're playing in the postseason and they did some things to really disrupt us."
Davis continued, "I just felt like from the last four minutes of the first half we looked like a team that was tired. We tried to fight through, but when you're a little bit tired, your execution goes. I don't think it was from an effort standpoint, but we needed some things to go right for us to be able to feed off of that energy and that adrenaline. We've had that the last few weeks, but we didn't have that tonight."
KEY STATS
The Flames made 11 of their 25 3-point attempts. They were six for 12 from long range in the second half.
Liberty made 18 of its 29 second-half field goal attempts and finished 32 of 57 (56.1 percent) from the floor for the game.
It was the final game in maroon and gold for three CMU seniors, Josh Kozinski, Luke Meyer and Cecil Williams.
"It's been a great group to coach, a great group to work with,” Davis said. “I think you're going to see those individuals go on and do great things."
Kozinski hit six 3-pointers and his 19 points game him exactly 1,000 points in his four-year CMU career. Hi is the 32nd player in program history to hit that milestone and he is the program's all-time leader with 306 3-pointers.
Meyer started all 133 games of his Chippewa career and finished with a 7.4 points per game and 4.3 rebounds per game average. Williams capped a two-year career with CMU, during which he started all 68 games in which he appeared, scored 794 points, and averaged nearly 12 points and 6.3 rebounds per game.