The Eastern Michigan men’s basketball team traveled I-94 west to take on their Mid-American Conference (MAC) rivals Western Michigan University Broncos on Tuesday, Jan. 23, losing 73-56 to suffer their fifth consecutive loss.
The Eagles were outscored in both halves of the game, losing the first half by a score of 31-20 and the second 42-36.
The Green and White saw three players score in the double-digit territory in the effort, including Tyson Acuff (Detroit, Mich.), Jalin Billingsley (Cleveland, Ohio), and Yusuf Jihad (Farmington Hills, Mich.), who dropped 14, 11, and 10 points respectively to combine for 35 of EMU’s 56 points for the game.
All five starters for the Eagles made at least one field goal against the Broncos, but Western’s total of 46.7% from the field had the favor for the whole game.
Stat-wise, Billingsley and Legend Geeter (River Rouge, Mich.) each pulled down seven rebounds for the Eagles while Javantae Randle (Detroit, Mich.) had six rebounds to be the third member of the team who collected five or more boards in the game. Despite this, EMU was still out-rebounded by Western, 48-36.
In the second half of the contest, the closest EMU was able to cut it down to was 10 points, when it was 40-30 with just over 15 minutes left in the second half. After this moment, they were outscored the rest of the game, 33-26.
Struggling to shoot was the story of the contest for EMU. Even though they had three players go in double-digits, they overall as a team shot 21-65 (32.3%) from the field and also only made five three-point attempts on 24 tries.
Moreover, it only got worse for head coach Stan Heath’s squad as they went 9-18 (50%) from the free-throw line, making the night even more forgettable on offense.
Acuff was a big part of the struggles to shoot, making just four shots on 19 attempts. While having a tough time in this area, the guard was able to score over double digits once again, which marks his 20th straight game dating back to last season of scoring over 10 points in which he has played. Acuff ranked fifth in NCAA Division I in points per game before tonight.
Categories that the Eagles did take the edge on WMU were steals, winning that battle 6-4, and offensive rebounds, grabbing 15 of those to 14 in their competition.
While the offensive struggles were proven in the contest, the Eagles’ defense forced 16 turnovers which tied for the second most in that category this season.
EMU finds themselves in a very difficult spot now as MAC play is nearing the halfway point very shortly. They have now lost five straight games, a streak that dates back to Jan. 6, after winning a thriller in overtime against Kent State by a score of 71-69.
The Eagles started the season 8-6 and now sit at 8-11 overall, and 1-6 in MAC play leading up to a Saturday afternoon home game against the University at Buffalo. Buffalo is 1-5 in MAC games and 2-16 overall, a game that the Eagles have to win if they want to have the possibility of making their first trip to Cleveland since 2018.
The upcoming game against the Bulls will start at 3:30 p.m. and will be streamed on ESPN+ while also on the radio with WEMU 89.1 FM.
For more information on the Eastern Michigan Men’s Basketball program, you can visit The Echo's website.
