 WESTERN MICHIGAN 67, BOWLING GREEN 56 Western Michigan (20-11), the 2010-11 MAC Western Division Champions, picked up its fifth consecutive victory and eighth in the last nine. The Broncos head into the semifinals, where they will face the Akron Zips, who defeated the Miami Redhawks 82-75 in double overtime in the second quarterfinal.
‘Its always nice to get the first win down, especially when you don’t play in the first round.” WMU head coach Steve Hawkins said after the game. “Our players did a really nice job.”
Junior Flenard Whitfield, in his first game back from a one-game suspension imposed by the conference added 12 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman center Matt Stainbrook contributed 10 points and seven boards.
Bowling Green (14-19) saw its two-game winning streak snapped and ended its season losing five of the last seven games. The Falcons defeated Northern Illinois on Tuesday night in the first round, 74-54, to advance to the quarterfinals.
“It’s been an extreme year - from one extreme to the next.” Falcons head coach Louis Orr said afterwards. “They fought hard to get here and in the end they fought hard.”
Junior guard Dee Brown led all scorers in the game with 17 points, while sophomore Danny McElroy came off the bench to score 15 and sophomore forward A’Uston Calhoun had 10.
In fact, BGSU led only one time in the game, and that was the game’s first basket - a jumper by Brown. From then on it was all Broncos. They fashioned a 12-2 run to open an eight-point advantage, 12-4, on a three by Ward at the 15:04 mark. Ward scored nine points in the first 20 minutes.
“My team has a lot of faith in me and they trusted me.” Ward said. “I was able to pull up, and the shots fell for me.”
After the Falcons closed to within three 20-17 on a three by Calhoun at the 8:35 mark, WMU went on a 10-0 run to open a 13-point lead 30-17 at the 4:32 mark on a three by reserve guard Alex Wolf. BGSU scored the last six points of the period to trail by only seven at halftime 33-26.
At the start of the second half, the Broncos outscored the Falcons 15-6 to open their largest lead of the game 48-32 with 10:38 remaining on a layup by junior forward Muhammad Conteh.
WMU’s lead stayed at double digits until the final minutes, when Bowling Green cut the deficit down to nine on three occasions, the last being 65-56 with 32 seconds remaining on two Brown free throws.
“We have a young team but we need to work to get better. We just didn’t play well enough today.” Orr said.
With the victory, the Broncos can look to a semi-final matchup with the Zips and maybe a little bit of revenge after last year’s heartbreaking loss in the semi’s, 66-64.
UPON FURTHER REVIEW
KEY MOMENT: With Bowling Green still in the game at the start of the second half, Western Michigan used a 15-6 spurt to break the game open, expanding its lead into double digits, where it stayed for the majority of the second half
STAR OF THE GAME: DEMETRIUS WARD-WESTERN MICHIGAN. The junior from Detroit led the Broncos with 14 points, but it was his three first half three-pointers that got the Broncos on their way to the lead and then to victory
KEY STAT OF THE GAME: Western Michigan shot just 37.9 percent from the field in the second half but was still able to win by double digits.
NOTES: The game was the 111th lifetime meeting between the two schools with BGSU holding a 66-45 edge…It was just the fourth time the two met in MAC Tournament play (even at 2-2)..WMU is 17-26 in MAC Tournament play…WMU head coach Steve Hawkins is 11-1 lifetime against Bowling Green and 10-6 in MAC Tournament play…BGSU is 18-29 in MAC Tournament play.
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