By Katrina Murphy
Sports Editor
There was no doubt that the Western Michigan University Broncos (4-4) had come to play basketball Saturday night and in the first-ever meeting between the Kennesaw State Owls (4-6) and Western Michigan, the Brown and Gold came out victorious in a 72-64 decision.
“We actually had great energy early,” said Bronco head coach Steve Hawkins. “We got off to a good lead, there was a lot of enthusiasm; we did what we were trying to do.”
WMU was a force to be reckoned with during the first half as they pushed the intensity of defense set by the Owls. Back-to-back buckets by senior guard Donald Lawson and then senior forward Martelle McLemore at the 16:47 mark kicked off a hot scoring streak. Within the last 13 minutes of play, the Broncos put up 23 points, giving them a 35-33 lead at the half.
“We knew coming in they were going to run a lot of different defenses and that’s something that we stress but when you talk about it is one thing but it’s another thing when they continuously throw different things at you each and every time down the court,” said senior guard David Kool.
Kennesaw State’s defense seemed to be too much for the Broncos to handle as WMU’s lead was soon erased in the second half. The Owls came out strong, putting up seven points in less than three minutes of play.
“We made a lot of defensive mistakes,” said Hawkins. “We got very, very complacent when they went to the zone and that was our undoing and there was a slide that we really weren’t able to get stopped for about 15 minutes.”
A pivotal driving force in the second half was Kool. In the last three minutes of play, Kool scored seven, bringing his total for the night to 20, along with two steals, two assists and seven rebounds.
Another strong player for the Brown and Gold was freshman forward Nate Hutcheson, who finished with a career-high 13 points and four rebounds.
“I took my first shot and that was an air ball so I just knew I had to keep going to the hoop and the rest of our bench really played hard,” said Hutcheson. “I mean, some of them aren’t shooting the ball the way they want to but they’re still getting after it.”
Aggressive play and smart ball sense on both ends of the court gave WMU the edge they needed to pull out the victory.
The Broncos head to Hawaii on Sunday to compete in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic, where they will face teams such as USC, Northeastern and St. Mary’s.
About heraldstaff