BOX SCORE

KALAMAZOO -- Behind the shooting of sophomore David Kool, Western Michigan (14-10, 8-3 MAC) defeated Miami (12-11, 6-5 MAC) in the Broncos' second double-overtime victory this season, 78-75, Tuesday night at University Arena in front of 3,712.

Andrew Hershberger shot 2-for-2 from behind the free-throw line to start the beginning of double overtime to put the Broncos ahead by two with 4:38 remaining. After both Miami's Tim Pollitz and Joe Reitz connected 1-for-2 from behind the line, Kool sent the Broncos ahead by four points, their largest lead since 14:24 in the first half of the game, 76-72, after adding a jumper. Miami responded with three points to close the gap down to one with 1:25 remaining, but Hershberger connected 2-for-2 again with only 2.4 seconds remaining on the clock ending with a Bronco victory, 78-75.

In the first 18 seconds, Hershberger added a dunk but was quickly silenced with a Miami layup to tie the score, but after a shot from behind the arc from Michael Redell the Broncos took a 5-2 lead with 18:37 to go in the first half. Both teams traded baskets until a shot from behind the arc from Kool sent the Broncos into their largest lead of the game, 12-6, with 14:24 remaining. But after Miami went on a 12-1 run, the Broncos fell to 21-15 and continued to trade baskets until a jumper from Martelle McLemore brought them within five before entering the locker room, 33-28.

The Broncos started off strong in the beginning of the second half to go on a 7-2 run to tie the game at 35 with 17:56 left to play, but after a shot from behind the arc from Bramos, Miami took their biggest lead of the game, 58-48, with only 5:32 remaining in the game.

The Brown and Gold fought back hard after an old fashioned three-point play from Kool along with sending Kool and Gary to the line shooting 3-for-4 to bring the game within one point, 62-61, with 1:23 remaining. Behind by two after Bramos connected on 1-for-2 from the line, Kool connected on a jumper with 4 seconds remaining to send the game into overtime.

Exchanging baskets in the first 2:47 of overtime the Broncos found themselves behind by three points after Miami was sent to the line two seperate times shooting 2-for-3 with 19 seconds remaining, 71-68, until Kool connected on a shot from behind the arc to tie the game with only 12 seconds remaining to send the game into double overtime.

Kool led Western Michigan with 23 points with six rebounds followed by three other Broncos in double-figures with Gary adding 16 points with six rebounds, Reitz with 11 points and game-high 15 rebounds followed by Hershberger with 10 points shooting 100 percent on the evening, 3-for-3 from the field and 4-for-4 from behind the line.

Kool set a new Western Michigan record for consecutive made free throws after hitting his first four free throws of the game to push him to 41 straight, breaking his previous record of 39 set earlier this season.

Miami was led by Bramos with 26 points along with three other RedHawks in double-figures with Tim Pollitz with 18 points and 13 rebounds, Kenny Hayes with 12 points followed by Eric Pollitz with 11 points.

After defeating Buffalo in double-overtime 100-90 on Jan. 29, this is only the third time in Western Michigan history the team has played into double-overtime two times within a season (1968-69 and 1972-73), the Broncos improve their record to 8-3 overall in double-overtime in WMU history.

The Broncos finish MAC crossover play 4-2 against the MAC East and resume play against the MAC West on the road against Northern Illinois on Sunday, Feb. 17 at 4 p.m.

QUOTES

WMU guard David Kool

(On the game) "We just found a way to win. We just battled and battled all game. We hung in there and made enough plays in the end. It feels great to get this win tonight."

(On playing 10 extra minutes) "The game just kept going and going. At that point in time you just have to suck it up and know that the game is on the line and you have to be out there and make enough plays."

WMU center Joe Reitz

(On David Kool) "The kid's unbelievable. I've never played with a player that when the chips are down he rises to the occassion more and more. He steps up in the biggest way at the biggest times. You know he didn't have his best shooting night ... but when we need to make a shot and he knows when he needs to make a shot, he's going to do it. He was clutch down the stretch, hitting big shot after big shot to send us into overtime, to send us into double overtime."

(On the game) "For 38 minutes, Miami outplayed us and we didn't play our best game, didn't bring out best energy, but when we needed to rise to the occassion, we really did. I thought it was just a gutsy effort by everybody who played. Dre played well, Shawntes battled as much as he could until he got that cramp. Hershberger steps up with a huge rebound and two big free throws at the end to seal it. A lot of guys stepped up when we needed it most and played well."

(On the team's feelings down 10) "I think in the past we would have folded. We would've thought, hey we can't win this game. We're a different team this year with a different attitude and we were down 7 or 8 at Buffalo with four minutes to go and came back and won that game in double OT and I think that gave us a lot of confidence that we're never out of it. Once we got into the overtime we felt fortunate to have another life and we stepped up and made enough plays down the stretch."

WMU head coach Steve Hawkins

(On Shawntes Gary injury) "Don't want anyone to think anything bad, he's just cramping really bad."

(On the game) "A heck of a basketball game. Two teams that were playing pretty well coming into the game, you could see why Miami was the hottest team in the MAC coming into this. They were outstanding early. We tried a lot of different things and couldn't slow them down. We weren't playing great defensively, we didn't have great energy and we were struggling shooting the ball. I thought Miami played an excellent defensive game on us.

"We went to the press and we went to the 1-3-1 trap and fortunately for us we were able to make some plays out of that and get some turnovers. That got us back into the ball game and gave us a shot to get into overtime and then from there David makes all of us look good. A lot of our kids made big plays. Just a heck of a ball game. I think it just shows a tremendous amount of courage and a very, very gutsy team that just wouldn't say die."

(On team's mindset late in games) "More than anything they're just comfortable and their comfort level comes from being veterans."

(On the mental toughness of the Broncos) "We showed it tonight. If this were a mentally weak basketball team, they could have given in. Tonight, at a time when things were looking bleak, we didn't flinch. Our guys didn't flinch, they went right back out there and went right at them. We found a way to win a basketball game that we didn't play great in, they played super in and we just made enough plays in the end."