Game Stats
WORCESTER, Mass. - The Western Michigan men's basketball team suffered its second loss of its current road trip, 63-69, at Holy Cross on Saturday afternoon at the Hart Center. Despite lights out shooting in the opening 20 minutes, 66.7 percent from beyond the arc, the Broncos could not match the Crusaders production in the paint.
The Broncos had their chances late in the game. Trailing by three with 2:54 remaining, David Kool, who led all scorers with 18 points, missed on a three pointer, which would have tied a career high. Holy Cross went down and scored a layup to push the lead back to five points. WMU trailed by two possessions with 1:27 remaining but on the ensuing possession Kool turned the ball over under the Broncos' basket. Colin Cunningham went down and hit one of two free throws en route to the Crusaders pushing the lead to its largest, nine points in the final minute.
WMU made good on 8-of-12 three-point attempts, making just one two-point field goal in the first half. Kool hit a jumper in the paint at the 9:12 mark and WMU did not make another two-point bucket until Flenard Whitfield's shot from point-blank range at the 16:45 mark of the second half.
Appropriately enough, WMU clung to a three-point lead, 30-27, at the break. The Broncos suffered a four-minute scoring drought but thanks to cold shooting from the Crusaders, most notably at the free throw line, WMU still possessed the five-point lead at the end of the scoring drought with 3:22 to go, 25-20, as it had when it began at the 7:26 mark, 22-17. Shooting 69.4 percent at the line on the season, the Crusaders were just 3-for-9 from the stripe in the first half.
That statistic changed in the second half has Holy Cross made good on 15-of-19 from the free-throw line (78.9 percent) to capture and maintain its second half lead. The Crusaders opened the second half with an 8-2 run on a pair of jumpers from Andrew Beinert and two layups from R.J. Evans, Holy Cross' leading scorer with 17 points. Holy Cross built the lead to six, 42-36, with 13:44 remaining when Western Michigan made a surge.
LaMarcus Lowe and Shawntes Gary each made a pair of free throws and after a Crusader make, Derek Drews cashed in on a layup. Down by two, 42-44, coming out of a time out, the Broncos forced a turnover and Kool nailed his fourth trey of the day to put WMU ahead, 45-44. After the game was tied on two more Gary free throws, WMU grabbed its last lead of the game on another Whitfield layup.
From there, Holy Cross pounded the ball inside, hitting layups and free throws to regain and extend the lead. The Crusaders led WMU in the paint, 20-12, heading into halftime and ended the game with a 32-12 advantage.
The Broncos did not post a score on the board until the 16:11 mark of the game with Kool hitting the first of his three trifectas in the first half. His next three-point field goal gave WMU its first lead of the game with 15:33 on the clock. Kool led all scorers with 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting in the first 20 minutes and Western Michigan was out-rebounding Holy Cross, 19-14, led by four boards from Martelle McLemore and Derek Drews each. McLemore finished the game with seven points and seven rebounds, sharing the game's rebounding lead with the Crusaders' Eric Meister. Meister (10) was one of three to score in double figures for Holy Cross, joining Evans and Cunningham (12).
WMU was hampered by turnovers in the first half, handing the ball over to the Crusaders 10 times. The Brown & Gold had six turnovers in the first 10 minutes of the game. The Broncos' 12th in the opening moments of the second half, matching their total from two nights ago at VCU, gave Holy Cross its first lead since the 13:31 mark mid way through the first half, 9-8.
Western Michigan (2-7) will have eight days off before boarding a plane to Las Vegas, looking to stop a three-game skid against the Runnin' Rebels of UNLV on Dec. 14.
