BOX SCORE

SEASON STATS

KALAMAZOO -- With five players in double digits for the second time this season, Western Michigan controlled the game from the beginning and defeated Northern Illinois, 86-69, Saturday afternoon at University Arena in front of 3, 204. 

The Broncos (7-7, 1-0 MAC) started off strong with Joe Reitz converting an old-fashioned three-point play and Derek Drews connected on two back-to-back three pointers taking the Broncos on a 9-0 run in the first 3:19 of the half.

The Huskies (3-10, 0-1 MAC) fought back to within five points, 14-9, with 12:50 to go, but WMU answered with an 8-2 run behind three-pointers from David Kool and Michael Redell and a fastbreak layup from Shawntes Gary to go back up by 14, 25-11, with 8:43 to go.

Northern Illinois, however, scored nine of the next 11 points to cut the lead to seven, 27-20, with 4:29 to go and went in to the locker room trailing by nine, 36-27.  

Entering the second half, Redell immediately scored a three-pointer but Northern Illinois follwed up with two jump shots. A block by Gary fired up Drews in scoring five straight points in 33 seconds, along with Redell shooting 2-for-2 from the free throw line, the Broncos went on 7-0 run, 46-31, with 15:53 to go.

The Huskies never pulled closer than 10 the rest and the Brown and Gold used a final 8-0 run to go up by 20, 75-55, with 4:11 remaining.

The Broncos shot only 39.7 percent overall, but did convert on 11-of-27 three-pointers (.407) and 25-of-31 free throws (.806) to account for the second-highest point total of the season. The Broncos won the rebounding battle, 39-36, including 16 offensive rebounds that led to a 14-7 edge in second-chance points. The Broncos' ability to rebound and force turnovers (20 by NIU) also led to a 17-2 edge in fastbreak points and 30-5 in points off turnovers. Furthermore, the Broncos notched the second most assists (16), steals (9) and blocks (six) in a game all season.

Redell tied a career high with 17 points and dished seven assists to only one turnover, Derek Fracalossi had a season-high 11 points, while Drews and Reitz ended with 14 points each. Gary had 11 points, four rebounds and three steals and Kool tied a career-high with five assists to go with seven points, six rebounds and two steals.

Michael Patton scored a career-high 20 points for Northern Illinois followed by Jarvis Nichols with 17 points and Shaun Logan with 13 points.

Western Michigan next takes on Eastern Michigan on Saturday, Jan. 12 with tip-off at 4 p.m. 

QUOTES

NIU head coach Ricardo Patton

(On WMU's physical advantage)
"I thought their size and strength was good. Whoever your strength coach is here does a heck of a job. They got great bodies, I know that. My hats off to the strength coach (Tim Herrman is the WMU strength & conditioning coach) for sure,"

WMU guard Michael Redell

(On his performance)
"Just really taking what the defense gave me. There are a lot of gaps to penetrate. They really emphasized on guarding Joe and guarding David and there were defintely some driving lanes open today. That allowed me to get into the paint and find people and some guys did a nice job of finding me when I was open too."

WMU center Joe Reitz

(On Michael Redell's performance)
"Mike definitely has that in him to completely dominate a game and just kind of have the game at his fingertips like he did tonight ... setting everybody else up but also taking his own shot and stepping up and hitting threes. When Mike plays like and plays with that type of confidence and plays under control he's a great floor leader for us and sets the table for everybody else. Mike definitely was the MVP tonight."

(On defensive intensity)
"I thought we did a good job of executing the scouting report and did a real good job defensively. On a night where we shoot under 40 percent from the floor ... we still had such a good effort on the court. That shows your shooting's going to come and go, but what you can count on is defense and rebounding every night and I thought today our defensive effort and our effort on the glass was the key to us winning the game."

WMU head coach Steve Hawkins

(On the game)
"We started the game off well. It certainly helped that we were able to get out to a 9-0 lead and I thought defensively we set the tone for ourselves. This is two ballgames in a row and three out of the last four that defensively we really had a good effort. In the overall sense of things, we have five players score in double figures, we don't shoot the ball well overall and we still scored 86 points. There is a direct correlation between that (86 points) and our point guards combined for 12 assists and only three turnovers. Cutting down on turnovers along with defense were the critical parts of the game."

(On the play of Michael Redell)
"Mike obviously had a great game, one of his best games ever as a Bronco. He made great decisions all night long."