EMU Wins
in the
First
Round of
the CIT
Tourney By
Raymond
Rolak
Tell Us
Detroit
YPSILANTI
- The
Eastern
Michigan
University
Men’s
basketball
team
took a
giant
step to
salvage
the
2017-18
season
by
posting
a
resounding
85-63
victory
over
Niagara
in the
CollegeInsider.com
postseason
tourney.
It is a
nice
consolation
prize
after
the
tough
64-63
last
second
loss to
Toledo
in the
semi-final
at the
Mid-American
Conference
Championship
in
Cleveland.
It is
not the
NCAA
Tournament
or even
the NIT
but EMU
could go
far in
the CIT.
Before a
sparse
crowd,
redshirt
junior
Elijah
Minnie
had a
career-high
29
points.
Junior
James
Thompson
IV
tallied
20
points
and
pulled
down a
team-high
16
rebounds.
Senior
Tim Bond
had a
banner
night
with 11
points,
12
boards,
and
eight
assists,
while
also
adding
two
steals.
The
Eagles
are
strong
at the
Convocation
Center
as they
improved
to 14-3
at home
and
22-12
overall
on the
season.
With the
win the
Eagles
will
play
again on
March
22-25,
at a yet
to-be-determined
site. In
the
waning
minutes
EMU
coach
Rob
Murphy
substituted
liberally
with 11
player
getting
time on
the
court.
Niagara
(19-14)
boasted
the MAAC
co-player
of the
year in
Kahlil
Dukes
(16
points)
but
couldn’t
solve
EMU’s
zone
defense.
Niagara
had two
local
connections,
junior
Chris
Barton
(Avondale
High
School)
and
sophomore
James
Towns
(Henry
Ford
High
School).
http://www.collegeinsider.com/tournament/schedule-results.php
In
other
CIT
action
UIC
dominated
Saint
Francis
84-61
and UTSA
got by
Lamar
76-69.