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David Kool is guarded by EMU's Will Cooper / Photo courtesy WMU

In eight years as a head coach and assistant coach at WMU, Broncos coach Steve Hawkins couldn‘t recall such a strange statistic, especially for a winning team.

“Statistics, I don‘t know if I‘ve ever seen my whole life,” Hawkins said.

The Broncos didn‘t get an offensive board even by accident.

“Even a team rebound, (where) it just goes out of bounds. We didn‘t get anything out of that," Hawkins added.

It was a topic of conversation for the Broncos at halftime, and just a piece of embarrassment after the game was over.

“It tears me apart inside,” said freshman forward Flenard Whitfield, who did have two defensive rebounds. “It should make you hungry to go to the boards.”

Led by Justin Robbins‘ season-high 12 rebounds, EMU outrebounded WMU, 33-21. But even with 12 offensive rebounds, none of them resulted in baskets for the Eagles. So, neither team scored even one second-chance basket.

“We make those layups, it changes everything,” EMU coach Charles Ramsey said.

“There was a lot of fight in them,” Hawkins said.

However, the Eagles didn’t score a basket for the rest of the game, missing their last eight shots, including five from 3-point range.

And it‘s not that the Broncos were on fire. They scored three baskets in the final 12 minutes and just one in the final six minutes. That last one was big, a 3-pointer by David Kool (game-high 19 points, team-high 5 rebounds) with 1:06 remaining which put WMU in front, 44-36.

Rebounds? Forget ‘em.

All Hawkins knew is that the Broncos survived enough to end the night tied with Ball State for first place in the MAC West, courtesy of Ball State‘s 71-67 loss to Toledo. WMU (9-16, 6-6) will play Ball State (11-13, 6-6) on March 4, possibly for a divisional championship and a first-round bye in the MAC Tournament next month.

“Obviously, it‘s a big thing to have the destiny back in our hands for a No. 2 seed,” Hawkins said.

At times, the Broncos looked like a No. 2 seed as the Broncos put up runs of 8-0 and 14-0 on the Eagles. and committed just nine turnovers. But miss a shot, and the Broncos were running back toward the defensive end having lost offensive board after offensive board.

“We have to have a better effort going to the glass,” said Shawntes Gary, who didn’t have any rebounds in 30 minutes.

Hawkins couldn‘t understand the lack of rebounding, especially watching the Broncos grab six offensive boards in the first six minutes of last Saturday‘s game at Miami. WMU had 14 offensive boards, and 34 total, on that day, a 64-46 loss to the RedHawks. 

“Effort is a concern,” Hawkins said. “The fact you get no offensive rebounds is staggering and that goes right back to effort.”

For EMU, the effort was there, but their 2-10 league record is now the worst in the MAC. The Eagles will play host to Georgia State in the ESPNU Bracketbusters game, and then they‘ll play host to Toledo next Wednesday as they try to avoid the No. 12 seed in the postseason league tournament.

“We‘re going to compete. We’re going to play hard the rest of the way,” Ramsey said.