BOX SCORE
MUNCIE, Ind. -- Western Michigan dominated the Ball State Cardinals, 71-45, to grab their second Mid-American Conference win Wednesday night at Worthen Arena in front of 3,201.
Western Michigan (8-8, 2-1 MAC) took control of the game from the beginning starting off strong going on an 11-3 run over the Cardinals (2-13, 1-2 MAC) in the first 4:53 of the game. After a Joe Reitz layup, a scoring drought took over both teams for 5:05 until Ball State was able to connect on a jumper. Ball State was able to come back to within three points until Derek Fracalossi found Donald Lawson down low in the paint who connected on his first dunk of the night, 15-10.
Both teams were brought to the line numerous times, however, even though Ball State made 6-for-8 (75 percent) from the line in the first half and the Broncos connected on 4-for-6 (66.7 percent), Western Michigan added a layup from Reitz and a shot from behind the arc from Kool to head into the locker room up 11 points, 30-19.
As the second half began, Reitz added a layup to get the ball rolling. The Cardinals were able to connect 2-for-2 from the free throw line but David Kool added two layups of his own sandwiched around a layup from Shawntes Gary which he converted into three points after shooting 1-for-1, 39-23.
The Broncos' defense held the Cardinals to a 3:37 scoring drought and were unable to score a field goal for 13:12 in the second half allowing Western Michigan to dominate the scoreboard going on a 21-4 run to go ahead by 28 points after Michael Redell hit a three-pointer, the biggest lead of the game, 53-25.
Ball State's lead scorer, Peyton Stovall, finished the game with 18 points and ended the Cardinals scoring drought after a layup with 6:10 left in the game, 58-34.
The Cardinals were finally able to connect on shots from the field while both teams made it to the free throw line several times but the Broncos were the last to score with a layup from Martelle McLemore and Alex Wolf to bring the final score in favor of the Broncos by 26 points, 71-45.
Western Michigan's defense held Ball State to shooting only 23.1 percent (12-for-52) from the field and 21.4 percent (3-for-14) from behind the arc. The Broncos connected on 57.4 percent from the field (27-for-47) and were 41.7 percent (5-for-12) from the three point line.
Reitz led the Broncos with 15 points, Kool added 13 points, Andre Ricks had 10 points with five rebounds, and Gary followed with 10 points, six rebounds, two steals and one block.
Reitz joins Booker James in the history books as the only Broncos to score more than 1,400 points and snatch down over 800 rebounds in a career.
Ball State was led by Stovall with 18 points and seven rebounds followed by Anthony Newell with 13 points and five rebounds.
The Broncos head back home to host Toledo at University Arena for Blackout Saturday on Jan. 19th at 2 p.m.
