Bronco men’s basketball falls to Miami University at Ohio, 56-54

By Analiese Grohalski
Western Herald

The Western Michigan University (12-10, 4-5 Mid-American Conference) men’s basketball team suffered a heart-breaking loss on Thursday as the Miami RedHawks won with a buzzer-beating shot, 56-54.

“Anybody can beat anybody on any court,” said Bronco head coach Steve Hawkins. “These games are all so close. We can very well win at the buzzer on another night.”

Miami’s Julian Mavunga and Allen Roberts made the first shots of the game within the first 60 seconds of play; however, Bronco forward Nate Hutcheson put up two and teammate Martelle McLemore sank one before the first media time-out to start an 8-4 come-back.

With 3:16 left in the half, the two team’s battled neck-and-neck, trading possessions back and forth.  With the Broncos leading 24-21, McLemore put up points on back-to-back possessions – a quick two from the paint and a three-pointer from beyond the arc.

At the end of the half, Western Michigan led 29-24.

“We knew it wouldn’t be a cakewalk,” said Miami head coach Mike Haywood. “We knew it was going to be a tough game.”

In the first half, WMU shot 10-for-28 from the field and 4-10 from the three-point line, while Miami shot only 8-for-23 from the field and 3-of-9 from the arc.

At the beginning of the second half, Miami started strong with Kenny Hayes putting two points up quickly. Then, Hutcheson got Miami’s attention with a dunk, making the score 35-28 at the 17:19 mark.  David Kool contributed to the second half with multiple free-throw shots.

The game tied up 40-40 after Rodney Haddix hit a three-point for Miami. The RedHawks pulled ahead after the next possession, but were brought back to a tie after a dunk by McLemore which brought it 42-42.

“I just played,” McLemore said. He claimed Miami’s a hard basketball team, especially with Kenny Hayes being crafty with the ball.

After that, the ball flew between the two teams as each battled to get ahead. Kenny Hayes made the last shot at the .01 mark to bring Miami to the win.

Kool said that he tried to stay in front of him (Hayes) and only give him tough shots, but he managed to make a great shot.

“We’re not going to make any excuses; we just didn’t get it done,” Kool said.

In the end, the Brown and Gold made 18-for-53 from the field and 5-of-16 from the three-point line. The team had 35 rebounds.

Kool led the team with 19 points, 10 rebounds and three assists.

McLemore also finished the night with 17 points after finishing 6-of-12 from the field and 3-for-6 from beyond the arc.

Western Michigan returns to play on Saturday when they face Bowling Green State University at University Arena.  The match-up is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=14550

Posted by heraldstaff on Feb 5 2010. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

http://HeraldStaff