It was CMU's seventh-consecutive win in a season opener under . . .
How It Happened
Morgan hit a jumper with 5:11 to play in the first half, putting CMU up 33-30 and triggering a 20-4 run that gave CMU its largest lead of the first half, 51-34, with just under a minute to play before the break.
DiLeo, who made five of his seven 3-point attempts on the night, drilled three triples and scored 12 points during the surge. The Chippewas began the second half with a 14-2 spurt, extending their lead to 27 points, 65-38, with under 16 minutes to play and won going away.
"We knew those guys were going to come in fired up," said Morgan, who had three triples and finished eight for 12 from the floor. "We knew they were going to hit shots because that's what they do. They love to shoot. We had to adjust."
"They made some threes, they took it to us those first couple of minutes," DiLeo said. "I thought we did a really good job of adjusting and guarding their shooters better the last 10 minutes of the first half and continued to do that in the second half. Maybe a little low start defensively, but I thought we did a really good job adjusting."
Numbers
Morgan and DiLeo finished a combined 15 for 22 from the field as the Chippewas hit 52.9 percent of their field goal attempts, including 12 of their 27 3-point tries.
CMU caused 25 turnovers, 18 of which were steals. They committed just four turnovers.
Rob Montgomery added 12 points and a game-high nine rebounds for the Chippewas.
Nice Debuts
Two transfers, guards Devontae Lane and Travon Broadway Jr., playing their first game in a CMU uniform, had 11 and 17 points, respectively, and combined for 11 assists. Broadway made seven of his eight field goal attempts.
Deschon Winston, another transfer making his CMU debut, combined with Broadway and Lane to total 10 steals.
"You look at those guys and they're really good offensive players," Davis said. "They're guys that can score, pass, and play the game. They're not just one dimensional, they can be good, if not better, on the defensive end.
"That's what we've been trying to do in building the program. We've been recruiting really high-character guys, which they are, but they're also able to do more than one thing. That's what makes us a dangerous team this year."
Said Morgan: "I think they played well, especially Broadway defensively. He's been tremendous defensively, and it's only going to get better from here."
Climbing the Charts
With his 22 points, DiLeo moved up to 18th in program history with 1,163 career points. He began the night in 20th place. His five triples gave him 258 in his career and moved him into third in program history.
He passed John Simons, who made 256 3-pointers from 2012-15. Josh Kozinski (2013-18) is CMU's career leader with 306.