WMU beats Patroit League favorite Holy Cross 64-54

By Katrina Murphy
Western Herald

(Chyn Wey Lee/Western Herald) WMU senior center Donald Lawson attempts a shot against Holy Cross' Andrew Keister during Saturday afternoon's Broncos' 64 -54 victory. Lawson led the team with 15 points, for a career-high, eight rebounds and career-high three steals.

The Western Michigan University men’s basketball team had a score to settle with the Holy Cross College Crusaders.

In the last showdown at Hart Center in December 2008, the Crusaders edged the Broncos by six with a final score of 69-63.

Saturday, however, the Broncos earned their revenge. A late surge at the end of the first half left the Brown and Gold with a two point lead. WMU senior center Donald Lawson led WMU with seven points and five rebounds, while senior guard Martelle McLemore chipped in six points in the first half of play.

“I thought today we just grinded it out,” WMU head coach Steve Hawkins said. “After we dealt with the physical play of the guards, it just sort of came down to grinding it out.”

Another huge standout for the Broncos was sophomore guard Mike Douglas, who earned a career-high six assists to go along with six points.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M17yNx8KWE[/youtube]

“He got his shooting touch back and he shot the ball with confidence,” Hawkins said. “We knew that they were going to go underneath on the ball screen, we had talked about that, and Mikey had stopped them a couple of times.”
As the Broncos (2-2) took to the floor for the beginning of the second half, you could almost smell the determination emitting from them. Within the first four minutes of play, Western Michigan had scored nine points, giving WMU its biggest lead of the game. At the 16-minute mark, an assist from Douglas led to a slam dunk by Bronco big man Nate Hutcheson, giving him two of his seven points.

“You just got to let it come to you,” Douglas said. “You just got to throw it up there and hope you get it [the follow-through dunk].”

Propelled by the roars and cheers of proud Western Michigan fans, the Broncos continued to play aggressive defense, out-running the Crusaders on the floor. McLemore, Lawson and senior guard David Kool brought down a total of 10 rebounds of the 14 total in the second half, while Kool and Lawson also came up with six steals collectively.

In the end, the Broncos came out victorious in a 64-54 decision. Leading the way in points for the Brown and Gold was Lawson with 15, earning him a career-high.

“All week we’ve been harping on being consistent,” Lawson said. “The confidence needs to be there to make the shot.”

The Broncos return to University Arena on Tuesday to face Temple University (4-1) at 7 p.m.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue8DI6yqWQ0[/youtube]

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Posted by heraldstaff on Nov 28 2009. 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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