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Broncos blast Rockets in second half |
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Written by Paul Bowker
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TOLEDO, Ohio. -- Thanks to one terrific half on the home court of a team that hasn‘t won a conference game all season, Western Michigan has vaulted itself right into a
mad-dash to the title race.
Leading Toledo by just four points at halftime Wednesday night, the Broncos blasted the Rockets away in the second half, cruising to a 61-41 victory that sends WMU to rival Central Michigan on Saturday to play for a share of second place.
"I was really scared about (this game) coming in, because we hadn't been playing well defensively. We spent the last couple of days working on nothing but defense," WMU coach Steve Hawkins said. "It showed in the first half because we were terrible offensively. I thought as the game progressed, we settled down and got back to playing our brand of basketball."
With one week left in the regular season, the MAC West is a logjam, courtesy of Central‘s lost to Northern Illinois and Ball State‘s loss to Eastern Michigan on Wednesday night. WMU, EMU and CMU are all tied for second place just one game behind Ball State. The Broncos will finish their regular season next Thursday by hosting Ball State.
At halftime at Toledo‘s Savage Arena, the outlook wasn‘t quite so rosy for the Broncos. They led the Rockets by just four points. Senior guard David Kool, the MAC‘s leading scorer, had scored just two points. The Rockets, now losers of 19 straight, seemed poised for an upset.
The Broncos quickly ended those ideas with a 14-3 in the opening five minutes of the second half, followed later by a 14-0 run.
Martello McLemore scored a game-high 19 points for the Broncos (15-13, 7-7).
“The first four minutes of the second half were the story of the game,” UT coach Gene Cross said. “We lost the game because we didn’t play well enough on defense or rebound the ball in the second half.”
Rebounding? Clearly, WMU controlled the boards once halftime was over.
The Rockets were torn apart in the paint in the second half, scoring just one basket underneath and being outrebounded, 19-8. Toledo didn’t have any offensive rebounds in the second half after having eight (doubling WMU’s total) in the first half.
Toledo’s Jordan Dressler had a game-high eight rebounds, but was held to just one in the second half.
Jake Barnett led Toledo (3-26, 0-14) with 17 points, and had two of Toledo‘s six baskets in the second half when the Rockets scored just 20 points. He hit a game-high five 3-pointers.
A steal and slam-dunk in the first minute of the second half by Nate Hutcheson (7 points, 2 assists) started the Broncos on an 9-0 run that included two baskets by McLemore. After Barnett hit a 3-pointer for Toledo, the Broncos scored the next five. In the first six minutes of the second half, Toledo’s only points came on a pair of 3-pointers by Barnett.
The Broncos pushed the lead to 20 with 10:37 left on a 3-pointer by Demetrius Ward, and the Rockets never really threatened after that.
Flenard Whitfield came off the bench to score 12 points for WMU, which outscored Toledo’s bench, 23-5.
Toledo’s Jay Shunnar had a game-high four assists.
The Rockets, who play host to Ball State on Saturday, have not won a game since December in a nightmarish season that has seen them lose their last four games by an average of 19.2 points.
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