Broncos fall to Ohio University on the road

By Katrina Murphy
Sports Editor

The Western Michigan University (13-11, 5-6 Mid-American Conference) men’s basketball team fell to the University of Ohio on Tuesday, 90-74, in front of 2,880 fans at the Convocation Center in Athens, Ohio.

“We ran into a blazing hot team tonight,” Bronco head coach Steve Hawkins said. “We looked like we were playing in cement boots out there tonight. The combination was way too much for us to overcome.”

The Brown and Gold hit a pair of three-pointers within the first four minutes of play to give themselves a 6-2 lead, but it wouldn’t last. The Bobcats connected on five three-pointers to take a 12-point lead with eight minutes left in the first half.

“They were just hitting tough shots,” Bronco guard Mike Douglas said. “It’s hard to play against it sometimes, but we’ve got to bounce back and play harder.”

Douglas connected on a pair of free throws while Nate Hutcheson converted an offensive rebound into a lay-up for two points to cut the deficit to 11 with 5:13 left to play in the half. Ohio continued the shoot the ball well, building a 20-point lead, 45-25, at the end the first half of play.

The Bobcats opened second half play with a long three-pointer by D.J. Cooper as the shot clock expired, followed by a lay-up at the 16:43 mark to remain ahead, 55-32. WMU responded with a seven-point run with a pair of free throws from senior guard David Kool, a dunk from Hutcheson and a three-pointer from Martelle McLemore to cut the lead to 16.

“They [Ohio] came out and I think they executed what they wanted to, especially on the offensive end,” Kool said. “They put us in ball screen situations and really did what they wanted to do. On top of that, we weren’t in the right position at times.”

With 6:38 left in the game, the Broncos came back with back-to-back three-pointers from McLemore to cut the lead to 13, but just couldn’t battle back to put any kind of pressure on the Bobcats.

The Brown and Gold finished 25-for-59 from the field (.424) and 8-for-23 from beyond three-point range.

McLemore finished the night with 24 points, tying his career-high, after shooting 6-for-11 from beyond the arc. He also brought in four rebounds.

Kool finished with 19 points, five rebounds, three steals and two assists.

The Broncos will take some time off before hitting the road again on Saturday to travel to Eastern Michigan University for a Valentine’s Day match-up. The game will be broadcasted on Fox Sports Detroit.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=14701

Posted by heraldstaff on Feb 10 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

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