Box Score
Season Statistics
MUNCIE, Ind. -- Stane's Bufford scored 19 points, the most he has ever scored in a Mid-American Conference game, while Joe Reitz added 16 points, 15 in the second half, to lead Western Michigan to a win over Ball State, 62-56, in front of 4,741 at Worthen Arena.
"I thought it was a war out there. It was a very physical game," head coach Steve Hawkins said. "Fortunately for us we were able to make some plays in the second half and knock down some key free throws. It was enough to come away with the win. We'll take it. A MAC road win at this point in the season is hard to come by."
Bufford scored 10 points in the first half, including the last eight for the Brown & Gold (12-14, 9-6 MAC) while Reitz, Andrew Hershberger and Brian Snider were confined to the bench with two fouls each. Sophomore Dan Hess also added five first half points playing in the post in place of his foul-plagued colleagues.
"Stane's had a tremendous first half and kind of put the other guys on his shoulders," Hawkins said. "I don't think there was any question when he saw Brian and Joe go to the bench and he looked around at who he was playing with and he was the only senior ... he did a great job of asserting himself. From a coaches standpoint we kept feeding him the ball and he kept delivering."
The Broncos took a quick 10-point lead when Reitz converted an old-fashioned three-point play to start the second half, 34-24. The Cardinals (9-15, 5-10 MAC) responded with a 9-0 run to cut the lead to one. The Broncos answered and moved their lead back out to six points on three occassions, the final time with 10:10 remaining, 47-41.
Ball State came back to take their first lead since 2-0 on a Chris Ames layup with 6:48 to go, 51-50. On the very next possession, Snider hit his third three-pointer of the game to give the lead back to Western Michigan for good. Reitz hit 4-of-4 free throws in the final 28 seconds to hold off Ball State.
The Broncos, still tied with Northern Illinois in the MAC West race, play host to rival Central Michigan Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. in a game that can be heard on the Bronco Radio Network or viewed on Comcast Local.
