Men's Basketball Drops Final Non-Conference Game of 2024; Look to Bounce Back in WHAC Play

(Mt. Pleasant, MI)-- The Cleary Cougar men's basketball team played their final non-conference game of the year Monday afternoon, as they were in mid-Michigan to take on the NCAA D1 Central Michigan University Chippewas.

CMU started the game strong, scoring the first seventeen points of the game before Chaz Cobbs Jr. got into the lane and dropped a beautiful pass to Austin Santure to stop the bleeding.  After the under twelve-minute media timeout, Tyree Jones would hit a jump shot, and two possesssions later, Chris Williams would make a layup to give Cleary a 6-0 run.  After CMU went on another small run, Levi McKenzie hit a pair of jumpers to cut the deficit back to eleven points.  Austin Santure would knock in a pair of free throws, but the Cougars would trade baskets with the Chippewas, and a Chaz Cobbs Jr. layup with just under four minutes in the half would make the score 27-16 in favor of CMU.  After the ensuing media timeout, CMU went on a 13-0 run to finish the half, with Cleary trailing 40-16.

Cleary started strong in the second half, with AJ Hess hitting a three from the corner.  A Levi McKenzie three pointer five minutes later would make the score 44-22, but CMU would go on a run to finish the game, and held Cleary to seventeen points over the final fifteen minutes of action, as CMU won 85-39.

Levi McKenzie was Cleary's leading scorer with 10 points and 3 rebounds.  Chris Williams added 7 points and 5 rebounds, while Bennie Crenshaw Jr. had 6 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals.

Cleary will look to bounce back in 2025 when they return to WHAC play on Saturday, January 4, with a road game at UM-Dearborn.  The game is set to begin at 3:00 PM.