MT. PLEASANT, Mich. — What was feared heading into Saturday’s tilt between the Mid-American Conference West Division’s top two teams was confirmed by halftime.

Central Michigan is deep and good.

Seven-foot center Chris Kaman had another big game, and further cemented himself as the leading candidate for MAC Player of the Year as the Chippewas ran out to an early 16-point lead and cruised to an 88-71 win over Bowling Green.

The win vaulted the hosts past the Falcons and back into first place in the division.

“I thought we came out and were relentless in our movement and pressure,” CMU coach Jay Smith said. “I thought they got fatigued a little bit. You’re concerned when you play a team that has come back in a lot of games.”

BG (10-8, 6-4 MAC) scored the first four of the game, but Central managed to tie the game at seven by the first media timeout.

Over the next eight minutes, CMU outscored the Falcons 23-8, and took a 30-15 lead with six minutes left in the half. Tony Bowne scored six of his 18 over the final minutes of the half, and the hosts led 37-23 at the half.

An 11-2 run to open play in the second half essentially put the game away for good, as Bowne’s two threes during the run helped push the CMU lead to 48-25. After CMU stretched the lead to 29 at 67-38 with 12 minutes left, BG went on an 8-0 run to get the lead to 21, as Ron Lewis hit two free throws and Cory Eyink made two threes. But, after a media timeout, the Chips scored seven straight to extend the lead once again.

BG’s John Reimold scored 13 over the final eight minutes, but it was too little too late, as both Eyink and Kevin Netter, the Falcons’ only remaining players over 6’7″, fouled out in the late stages of the game.

After the game, BG coach Dan Dakich was impressed by Central’s effort.

“I thought everyone they put in the game played well,” Dakich said. “Their smaller guys did a really good job of getting into us. The game was decided by their ability to, by halftime, eliminate three of our starters. Jabari [Mattox], Cory [Eyink] and Ron [Lewis] really didn’t get anything done. I felt it was a function of their defensive pressure, more than anything else.”

Kaman led the Chippewas with 21 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks, his 13th double-double of the year, while Mike Manciel added 20. Bowne’s 18 was his career high.

“Tony shot well, extremely well,” Kaman said. “Coach is real proud of him. It’s a great thing when he makes those shots; it helps our team, it helps the energy. He got a lot of good looks at the basket, and he’s capable of scoring like that.”

Bowne said he just converted the good looks he got.

“We want to make those outside shots, because if we don’t, we’re not going to be able to get Chris the looks he wants inside,” he said. “They played off me a little bit, and I just hit open shots.” Reimold once again led the Falcons with 24, while Netter added 16.

Perhaps the main difference in the game was shooting, as Central was able to get easy looks at the basket and shot 53.4 percent for the game. The Falcons, in the meantime, had plenty of good looks in the first half and missed them. They were 0-6 from beyond the three-point arc in the first half, and finished 4-18. They shot 40.6 percent overall.

“That’s a tribute to our pressure defense,” Kaman said. “We like to get up in the offense, and not allow the next receiver to get the ball. The next option has to come all the way back to get the ball. We wanted to go at Mattox and make other guys dribble the ball up the court, because we thought he was the focal point of their offense.”

Kaman said that the Chippewas’ goal was to wear the visitors out.

“It was a thing about making them tired,” Kaman said. “We wanted to run and make them tired, because we knew a lot of those guys would play the whole game.”

Dakich sang Kaman’s praises after the game.

“Kaman’s a really good player, and he’s one of the few guys in the country who understands what he is as a big guy,” he said. “He gets down on the block, and works like crazy, and they throw it to him. Our strategy was to bother him from different spots, but once Kevin got his first foul, we had to change some things.”