21 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 came 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.
