Kent State narrowly beats Broncos

Bryan Paas
Staff Reporter

Despite the late heroics of Matt Stainbrook, Western Michigan University’s basketball team were not able to pull out a win in overtime falling to the Golden Flash of Kent State 78-73.

The loss drops the Broncos record to 10-13 and puts the Broncos at 4-5 in the conference.  The Broncos are now in a tie for second place in the MAC West, with Ball State and are a game behind the MAC West leading Eastern Michigan who defeated the Broncos back in Jan., 62-59 in overtime.

The Broncos have seven games remaining in the conference, including a game against Eastern Michigan at home on Feb. 29.

It has been a rough stretch for the Broncos who have dropped four of their last six conference games and who coming into the season were projected to win the MAC West.

Despite the loss, two Broncos had exceptional games against Kent State.  Flenard Whitfield and Demetrius Ward recorded double-doubles. It was the first time this season that two Bronco players recorded double-doubles in the same game.  Whitfield had a game high 18 points with 11 rebounds, while Ward recorded 21 points with 10 rebounds.  Matt Stainbrook and Nate Hutcheson would also contribute in the game with 11 points each.

The Broncos would lead at half up 33-32 shooting 13-29 from the field and only managing to knockdown only three of the 11 3-pointers shot in the half.
In the second half the Broncos would lead late in the second half before Kent State hit back to back 3-pointers with two minutes left that would give them a three points lead at 64-61.

Stainbrook’s three point play with a minute left in regulation would be enough to send the Broncos into overtime tied at 64-64.

In the overtime, the Golden Flash would start out hot scoring the first 8 points of the game before the Broncos could get on the board.  The Broncos would only have nine points in the overtime period while the Golden Flash was able to score 14 and seal a 78-73 victory.

The Broncos will have a chance to redeem themselves this Wednesday February 8, when they take on the Akron who is currently leading the MAC at 16-7 with an 8-1 conference record.

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Posted by thehair on Feb 5 2012. Filed under Breaking, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry