Box Score

Season Stats

KALAMAZOO -- Western Michigan opened the second half with a 21-9 run to go on and beat in-state rival Central Michigan, 86-76, in front of the largest crowd of the season, 3,424, at University Arena Tuesday night.

The Broncos (7-10, 2-2 MAC) shot 56 percent from the field on their way to a season high in points, while downing the Chippewas (7-9, 2-2). Leading the charge was junior center Joe Reitz who finished the game with a game-high 26 points and on 10-of-16 shooting at the free throw line and 8-of-12 from the field. His 16 free throw attempts was a career-high.

Reitz moved into 26th place all-time in scoring at WMU with 1,052 points, eighth in career free throws made with 318 and fifth all-time in free throw attempts 459.

The game started off back-and-forth, before Central Michigan took the lead for more than six minutes until Western Michigan regained the lead on a pair of Michael Redell free throws, 32-31, with 4:57 to go.

The teams traded the lead back-and-forth throughout the rest of the half for a total of 15 first half lead changes, with the final change coming on a Jordan Bitzer three-point basket at the buzzer, giving the Chippewas a 42-40 lead at the half.

CMU forward Eddie Spencer pushed the lead to 44-40 on a put-back of a missed Bitzer three-pointer less than a minute into the half. Back-to-back Bronco buckets by Shawntes Gary and Derek Fracalossi tied the game at 44. Bitzer answered back with another three-pointer to give CMU the lead, 47-44, until Reitz scored four straight points to give the Broncos the lead for good. The Broncos would then go on a 17-4 run to increase their lead to 65-51 with 10:27 to go.

CMU shot 57 percent from the field, including 8-of-12 from three, in the first half. The Bronco defense picked up in the second half and was able to hold the Chippewas to 38 percent from the field and just 4-of-12 from three. The Bronco defense also forced 10 turnovers in the second half, which WMU converted into 13 points.

Redell, one of four Bronco's starters to finish in double figures, finished the game with 14 points, seven assists and a game-high seven rebounds. Freshman David Kool finished with 15 points on an efficient 3-of-5 from the field and 7-of-8 from the free throw line. The Broncos as a team shot 30-of-39 from the charity stripe and fouled out three Chippewas. Derek Fracalossi also contributed 12 points, four rebounds and four assists.

Giordan Watson led CMU with 19 points and seven assists on 6-of-15 shooting, but was harassed constantly by the WMU defense and scored eight of his points after WMU went up 14 points. Bitzer also contributed 15 points for the Chippewas.

The Broncos go on to host the other Michigan MAC program as Eastern Michigan University (7-10, 2-2 MAC) rolls into University Arena on Saturday at 2 p.m. The game can be seen live on Comcast Local.

QUOTES

CMU head coach Ernie Zeigler

(On the game) "In terms of this game, unfortunately for us, defensively we weren't able to get stops. They did a really good job of spacing us and putting themselves in position to get to the foul line 39 times. They did a good job of dictating the pace the entire game."

(On WMU's toughness) "Western is the toughest team in the MAC in terms of being physical. That's something I want our team to be able to do."

CMU guard Giordan Watson

(On the physicalness of the game) "Central-Western games are always physical."

WMU head coach Steve Hawkins

(On the game) "I thought it was a typical Central-Western game. Both teams played hard and really got after each other. I thought both teams played well. We were fortunate enough to shoot the ball well all game long and we were fortunate to pull away from them in the second half."

(On Michael Redell) "As long as he defends like this, we'll take that. He's a very cerebral kid. He prides himself on being a smart player. He is the one kid that we have, him and Dre both, but Mike in particular could probably play all 40 minutes all year long. He's an incredibly fit athlete and just a bulldog mentally. When he's steady, we're steady."

(On shooting 39 free throws) "We want to drive the ball and we want to take the ball inside. We're either going to shoot open threes or finish at the rim. We want to make them play us in that manner and fortunately for us it worked out and we were able to get to the free throw line a bunch."

WMU guard Michael Redell

(On the game) "The first half our offense was really good, but defensively we let them get too many open threes. In the second half, we made some adjustments and did a lot better job."

WMU center Joe Reitz

(On scoring 26 points) "I thought the guards did a really good job of making entry passes. Our guards did a really good job of getting me the ball all game long."

(On the second half run) "We played a lot better defense in the second half and as a result of that got a lot of easy transistion buckets. You're playing at home and getting the crowd involved and that's a big boost. In a rivalry game like this, you know both teams are going to play real hard and we were fortunate to come out with a victory tonight."