Sunday's Men's Basketball Results
Central Michigan 134, Mississippi Valley State 78
Toledo 96, Marshall 70
Stories courtesy of Sports Information Departments
Central Michigan 134, Mississippi Valley State 78
Boxscore
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – One for the record books.
David DiLeo scored a career-high 30 points as the Central Michigan men's basketball team rolled past Mississippi Valley State, 134-78, on Sunday in a nonconference at McGuirk Arena.
The 134 points is a program record, surpassing the previous best, 127, which was set twice, the first time against Oakland on Dec. 3, 1987, and the second on Jan. 3, 2014 against Marygrove.
DiLeo's previous career high was 29 against UMKC on Dec. 18, 2017, in his sophomore season.
"My teammates have all the trust in me in the world," said DiLeo, who made six of his 13 3-point attempts and was 11 for 19 from the floor overall. "They tell me to keep shooting, so they're looking for me. MVSU was focused on (defending drives) and helping inside. They forgot about me, so my teammates made the right play by looking for me or kicking it out. I was able to step up and knock down (some more shots).
"I found some success trailing the play as they were sagging on defense to help with some of the driving lanes."
The Chippewas led by nine, 36-27, with just over seven minutes to play in the first half, when Dallas Morgan hit a 3-pointer to trigger a 33-15 CMU onslaught to close the half. The Chippewas led, 69-42, at the break.
"I think our ability to run, to continue to press, to keep that tempo up, and continue to rotate is" something we strive to do, CMU coach Keno Davis said. "We have a bench where we have very little dropoff, if any, at times. So that can really wear down teams and I think you saw that today."
The Delta Devils had lost by wide margins at Iowa State and at Utah in the five days leading up to their game at CMU.
The Chippewas clearly took advantage of a team that was perhaps feeling road weary.
"We knew they played Tuesday and Friday on the road, so that's a lot of traveling," DiLeo said. "It was a quick turnaround for them. They could be (playing with) some tired legs so we were looking to run in transition early and get the game going up and down. I thought we did a good job of that, whether if it was off a steal or a rebound, or sometimes a made bucket, we were able to get it out and get going."
The Chippewas forced 23 turnovers while committing just six, and 16 of Mississippi Valley State's turnovers were Chippewa steals. Kevin McKay, Deschon Winston and Travon Broadway Jr. combined for 10 of the 16 steals.
The Chippewas outrebounded the Delta Devils 60-37, with 22 of the Chippewas' boards coming on the offensive end. CMU's bench outscored Mississippi Valley State's 57-24, and the Chippewas outscored the Delta Devils, 64-34, in the paint.
Rob Montgomery and Dallas Morgan added 17 points each for the Chippewas, who had seven players reach double figures.
Romelo Burrell led the Chippewas in rebounds with 11, and Winston finished with a team-high six assists.
"(They were) a little bit aggressive (down low)," Montgomery said. "It's nothing that we're not used to. We try to go after each other in practice so that once it's game time, we're use to the aggression. They definitely played hard down (in the paint)."
The Chippewas surpassed the 100-point plateau for the second-consecutive game after their 102-62 victory over UM-Dearborn in their season opener on Tuesday.
The 134-point effort on Sunday gave CMU its first back-to-back 100-point games since the 1972-73 season, when they beat Montana State, 102-75, and then topped Western Illinois, 102-82.
The Chippewas have surpassed the century mark 23 times under Davis, who is in his eighth year in charge of the program.
Next
The Chippewas will be back at McGuirk Arena on Saturday, Nov. 16 (2 p.m.) against Sam Houston State.
Sam Houston State is 1-1 after losing its second game of the season to Mississippi State, 67-58, on Friday.
Toledo 96, Marshall 70
Boxscore
HUNTINGTON, W. Va. – Toledo rode a red-hot shooting first half and saw six players score in double figures en route to a 96-70 triumph at Marshall on Sunday afternoon before a crowd of 5,645 at the Cam Henderson Center.
"We're a very unselfish team and we shared the ball really well today," Head Coach Tod Kowalczyk said. "It was great to get contributions from a lot of different players. That's what you need to do to win on the road against a very talented team. We're not 26 points better than Marshall, but it was just one of those games where we started strong and kept pushing."
Junior Spencer Littleson, who tallied a career-high 27 points and team-best three steals, spearheaded the Rockets' offensive onslaught in the opening 20 minutes. He finished 6-of-8 from three-point range with five of his triples coming in the first half.
"Spencer is a great shooter and hit some open shorts early," Kowalczyk said. "He played really hard today and gave us a spark on the defensive end as well."
Junior Dylan Alderson enjoyed a breakout outing as well by tallying career best in points (17) and rebounds (10). Senior Willie Jackson also produced a double-double with 10 points and 10 boards to help Toledo dominate the glass by a 43-29 margin.
Junior Marreon Jackson distributed a team-high eight assists to guide the efficient Rocket attack. Toledo shot 51.5 percent from the field and knocked down 14-of-25 three-point attempts.
Jackson also added 12 points and was joined in double digits by senior Luke Knapke (15 pts.) and redshirt freshman Keshaun Saunders (12 pts.).
Junior Jarrod West and sophomore Taevion Kinsey each scored 20 points to pace the Thundering Herd attack.
Toledo led by as many as 23 points in the opening stanza and took its first double-digit lead, 23-12, following an Alderson trey with 12:35 remaining in the first half. The Rockets extended their cushion to 20 points 38-18, on a Littleson three-point bomb less than three minutes later. The Rockets took a 55-34 lead to the locker room when Marreon Jackson buried a trey five seconds before intermission.
Toledo's lead didn't dip below 14 points in the second half. West brought the Thundering Herd within 63-49 with 12:48 remaining, but Alderson's three-point play capped off a 7-1 spurt for a 70-50 advantage with 10:34 to play.
Toledo will return to action next weekend when it hosts Robert Morris (Nov. 16) and Howard (Nov. 17) as part of the Men Against Breast Cancer Invitational. Tip-off time for both contests is 2:00 p.m.
