Twenty-one points from Christian Henry (Chicago, Illinois/The Skill Factory/Panola College), 18 points from Da’Sean Nelson (Toledo, Ohio/Robert S. Rogers/Kilgore College/DePaul) and an additional 13 points from Jalin Billingsley (Cleveland, Ohio/Lutheran East/Georgetown) was more than enough to power the Eastern Michigan basketball team to a dominant showing over Central State in a preseason outing at the George Gervin GameAbove Center, 85-63.
Yusuf Jihad (Farmington Hills, Michigan/North Farmington/Oakland) was the only other Eagle to score double figures with 10, but the star of the night was the aforementioned Henry - boasting a +/- of 32, leading the team in scoring, and also posting a super efficient night as well shooting 50% from beyond the arc while making eight of his 14 shots total.
Eastern Michigan started out slow, falling behind seven points to Central State midway through the first half, but a 10-0 run towards the end of the stanza allowed the Eagles to take full control of the game; taking a 13 point lead into the half and not looking back the rest of the night.
“Once we kinda settled down—started executing a little bit better on our offense, we became very fluent,” head coach Stan Heath said following the dominant preseason win.
The Eagles looked efficient on both sides of the floor - with the offense shooting 52.2% from the floor throughout the night and the defense forcing a whopping 25 turnovers on Central State, 38 points coming from their defensive efforts.
All 13 players on the team got a chance to check into in-game action, with the coaching staff still evaluating who will be a part of the season opening rotation next week.
“I’m still evaluating our team to figure out who are those nine guys [in the rotation],” Heath said. “I’m still kinda up in the air on a few guys.”
Next week the regular season officially begins for Eastern Michigan, traveling to Texas State to open the 2024-25 campaign. Tip off will be at 8 p.m. EST, with the game being streamed live on ESPN+ and available to be listened to on WEMU.
