KALAMAZOO, Mich. ? Men's basketball made good on a Bronco sweep of Black Out Saturday at University Arena, taking care of Bowling Green, 84-62. Brian Snider and Derek Fracalossi notched career highs with 28 and 11 points, respectively. With the win head coach Steve Hawkins picked up his 50th win as head coach of the Broncos.
"Obviously, this was great for us for a lot of reasons," Hawkins said. "Most important, we had to prove to ourselves we're capable of playing good basketball. To get back in front of the home crowd gave us confidence and I thought our defense keyed our offense during that stretch (where we came from behind). When we click like that we can be a pretty good basketball team."
The Broncos (4-8, 1-1 MAC) fell behind by 12 points early in the first half when Bowling Green's (5-7, 1-1 MAC) John Floyd put the Falcons up, 16-4, on the first of his five three-point field goals. Floyd led his team with 23 points (8-of-13).
Western Michigan cut the lead to 16-13 when Shawntes Gary, Fracalossi and Snider hit successive three-point buckets. The Broncos took their first lead of the night, at 20-18, on another Fracalossi trey. Besides a Steven Wright lay-up, Bowling Green went quiet from the floor for six minutes, 25 seconds and found itself trailing, 24-21. WMU kept the pressure on, leading, 41-29, at halftime.
"Lately, I've been confident in my shot," Fracalossi said. "We've been waiting for (the shots to fall) all season. We knew we could shoot the ball, it was only a matter of time before we started doing it."
Bowling Green managed to creep to within eight points just twice during the second half as the Brown & Gold extended their lead to 15 points on two occasions and settled for their largest margin of 22 with the final score. Joe Reitz joined Fracalossi and Snider in double figures, chipping in 21 points to go along with a season-high 13 boards.
"This feels great. It was just a matter of time before everybody played well on the same night," Reitz said about the Broncos' performance. "We took the court with confidence and when we do that we are capable of being a very good team."
The win snapped a three-game skid for the Broncos and marked the most points in a first half (41) and a game (84) since the season opener against Northwood (Nov. 19). WMU's nine trifectas were also a season-high for the team, besting for former mark of six set against Loyola Marymount on Dec. 22 in Hawaii.
Western Michigan will try to make it two in a row when the Akron Zips come to University Arena on Jan. 10. Tip off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
