Box Score

Season Stats

CLEVELAND -- Joe Reitz led all players with 16 points and seven rebounds, but third-seeded Kent State was able to overcome a second half deficit and defeat No. 6 Western Michigan, 75-66, in the quarterfinals of the 2007 FirstEnergy Mid-American Conference Tournament at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

After trailing by three points at halftime, 38-35, Western Michigan (16-16) opened the second half on a 10-2 run to take a five-point lead, 45-40, on Andre Ricks' three-pointer with 14:46 remaining in the game.

Kent State (21-10) rallied back with a 28-9 run over the next 6:32 to take a 14-point lead, 68-54, with 7:05 to go in the game on an Armon Gates three-pointer.

That would be the Golden Flashes last field goal of the game as Western Michigan made a rally of its own to cut its deficit to four, 70-66, on two David Kool free throws with 1:34 remaining.

The Broncos wouldn't score again and KSU hit 5-of-8 free throws down the stretch to hold on to the win.

The early part of the game was back and forth with five ties in the first seven minutes of the game.

Western Michigan led by two, 15-13, with 13:51 on the clock after a fastbreak layup by Derek Fracalossi before Kent State strung together a 16-0 run over only four minutes and 41 seconds to build a 14-point lead, 29-15.

Kent State still led by 13 points, 37-24, with 4:24 left in the half when Western Michigan ended the half on an 11-1 run to close within three points, 38-35, at halftime.

Reitz was joined in double figures by Kool with 14 points, six rebounds, three steals and two assists. Derek Drews scored 12 points and Shawntes Gary added 10 points for the Brown & Gold, while Fracalossi tied Reitz for game-high rebounding honors with seven.

The Broncos shot just 38.6% (22-57) from the floor and only 4-of-21 behind the three-point line. Kent State ended the game shooting 48.3% (28-58). The Broncos converted on 18-of-20 free throws (90.0%) to stay in the game.

KSU outrebounded WMU, 40-32, and led 15-8 in second chance points and 40-22 in points in the paint. WMU forced 13 KSU turnovers and outscored the Golden Flashes, 16-13, in points off turnovers.

Omni Smith led Kent State with 14 points as his team advances to the semifinals to play No. 2 Akron on Friday at 9 p.m.

QUOTES

WMU head coach Steve Hawkins

(On the game) "They beat us on the glass and that was a concern for us coming into the game. They drove the ball at us and for a while we were able to get it stopped and make a run at them, but they were able to get to the rack a lot more in the second half and we went dry there for a little while. Foul trouble, we fought that the whole game. All in all, it was just too much of them and not enough of us. We just seemed to be fighting an uphill battle the whole game."

(On the team's poor shooting) "Has anyone shot the ball well here? You've got arena, number one. Tight rims, very tight rims. If the ball hits the rim in this tournament, it's coming off. We didn't shoot the ball well, but at the same time you've got to hit nothing but net or it's coming off and there were a lot of long rebounds. You'll see that all tournament long I think if they don't do anything about the rims. You saw it tonight and I've seen it all tournament long since we've been here.

"To go 4-for-21 and 2-for-11 last night, it's just not what we normally do. We picked a bad night to do it tonight and we had some pretty good looks."

(On the season) "First and foremost, they are a success in my eyes. We base our entire program on Coach Wooden's definition of success, which is success is peace of mind. Which comes as a direct result of self satisfaction knowing that you did the best to become the best that you are capable of becoming. Our kids did that. I told our kids they should be at peace with themselves. They should be at peace with the effort that they gave because they couldn't of left anything else. All year long they gave us everything that they had, including tonight.

"At the same time, the fact that our best effort wasn't good enough to win the tournament here has to motivate all of us throughout the offseason and we have to remember the feeling that we have right now.

"So many of these kids came into here ... they hadn't split any blood for us yet. They hadn't spilt any sweat for us yet. They know now what it means to be a Bronco. They know now with the tears in their eyes in the lockerroom how deeply it hurts. They know what it's like to be brothers, they know what it's like to care about each other, to care about their university. They know what it's really like to care about being a teammate when before maybe they hadn't and now that sets the stage for what we have in the future.

"I feeled like we turned a corner this year. We had to turn a corner when we first got here seven years ago. We had to turn a corner in our program which we did in about year three. Sweat equity had a lot to do with that. We hadn't spilt enough sweat to really care until that point in time. These kids now have. They've spilt enough sweat with each other. They know what it's like to really hurt and that's something that will serve our program well as we move towards the future and move into next year where we have this entire group back and we welcome a pretty talented recruit in Juston Hairston. We get Jon Workman who is probably our best shooter of all of them coming back at 6-9.

"We're very excited about the future. Disappointed we couldn't get it done now, but at the same time I feel very good about the year that we had and feel very good about the kids' effort. They're a success in my eyes, regardless of what the scoreboad says."

WMU guard David Kool

(On the team's poor shooting) "Probably a little combination of both. Whenever you shoot like we did you have to give credit to the other team's defense. I think they did a good job of trying to not let us get off some good lucks. We got some good looks, but we just didn't hit them. Sometimes for shooters that happens, unfortunately it happened in a game like this."

(On using this game as motivation for next season) "I think we have to. As Coach Hawk said, you've got to sweat the blood of the Bronco and I think we all did that again here tonight. I think we'll all remember this feeling and try to go out in the offseason and remember the feeling everyday. That should motivate you enough right there to make yourself better and make our team better next year."

WMU center Joe Reitz

(On Kent's offensive rebounding) "Obviously offensive rebounding was a big key. We talked about it before the game, but, one, we didn't go a good job boxing out, two sometimes we were stepping over our big guys trying to help on their guards penetrating and that left open gaps for their big guys to rebound the ball."

(On the team's feelings) "It hurts, it hurts bad. We really felt we were playing our best basketball down the stretch here. I think we all deep down believed we could make a run and get to the championship game and see what happens down here. We're all real disappointed deep down. We're all going to be back next year, too, so I think we can learn from this."