Box Score
CLEVELAND ? The season came to an end on Friday night for the Western Michigan men's basketball team, falling, 73-62, to third-seeded Akron in the first of two Mid-American Conference Tournament Semifinal games. Joe Reitz led all scorers and three Broncos in double figures with 19 points to close out his college career. He became just the third Bronco ever to score 1,700 or more points in a career, ending with 1,713. After the championship game on Saturday night, Reitz was named to the All-MAC Tournament Team along with Jeremiah Wood of Akron, Mike Scott and Al Fisher of Kent State and tournament MVP Haminn Quaintance of Kent State.
The Broncos never led in their 11th MAC Semifinal in program history, but also never quit, outscoring the Zips, 38-36, in the second half. Akron's win was thanks in large part to its bench. The Zips' reserves outscored WMU's, 20-4, with the leader coming in the form of Brett McKnight with 11 points. He was one of four Zips in double figures.
Akron started the game shooting 80 percent over the first 4:07 and took a 10-4 lead at the first media time out. The Zips sandwiched a pair of three's around Andrew Hershberger's jump hook to put WMU on the board.
Akron scored the next seven points before Shawntes Gary stopped the run with a baseline jumper. Gary came out of the media time out and hit another field goal to spark the Bronco offense. Three Akron fouls also aided Western Michigan in pulling within three, 14-11, at the 11:45 mark. David Kool, Martel McLemore and Derek Fracalossi paraded to the foul line one after the other and WMU sank five of the six charity shots.
The Zips' Cedrick Middleton helped push Akron's lead back to six points at the 7:33 mark, making his second three-point field goal in as many attempts to lead all scorers with eight points at that point of the game (3-for-3). Akron was shooting 60 percent from beyond the arc mid way through the first half, while Western Michigan was empty on four attempts through the first 12:27 of the first half.
Reitz took the Bronco into his own hands half way through the first half, scoring nine-straight points beginning with a put back off his own miss at the 10:19 mark. He added two more field goals as well as three free throws.
Akron's hot shooting continued has the clock dwindled towards half time. The Zips built a double-digit lead four times late in the half on the strength of another Middleton trey and a tenacious effort from Chris McKnight, who scored six points in a little over five minutes. The Zips took their largest lead of the half into the break, outscoring WMU, 37-24, over the first 20 minutes.
The Broncos were not sharp from the field unless it was a lay up in the first half. WMU had eight lay ups and eight free throws during the first stanza, shooting 8-for-18 from the field, while Akron was 16-for-28 (57.1 percent) during the first half. The Zips also out-rebounded WMU, taking a 16-8 advantage into the break, 6-2 on the offensive glass, which led to an 8-2 advantage in second-chance points.
Western Michigan finally drained a three-pointer on Michal Redell's 25th three-point attempt of the season (25-73). It was the Broncos' first make beyond the arc in five attempts to that point in the game. Hershberger made the team's second trey of the game two minutes, 45 seconds later, just his second attempt of the year (2-for-2).
Akron continued to shoot well from the field during the first part of the second half. The Zips were 5-for-9 at the 11:56 mark. By the second media time out WMU, unfortunately, went in the opposite direction, opening the second half 5-for13 (38.5 percent), but the Broncos were more aggressive with their shots as they had just 18 attempts the entire first half.
Western Michigan fell behind by 17 points, 57-40, when Akron's Darryl Roberts hit a three-pointer at the 7:34 mark. The Broncos clawed back to within 11 points during the three minutes, 20 seconds between the third and fourth media time outs, and they did it with the long ball and their first foul shots of the second half. Kool and Gary combined for three makes behind the three-point line and Reitz reached 17 points on a pair of free throws at the 3:44 mark.
The duo each finished in double figures, joining Reitz. Kool finished with 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting and Gary contributed 14 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the field. Reitz was 7-for-9 from the field and 5-for-6 from the free throw line.
Akron kept WMU at bay by finally hitting free throws, making 4-of-5 during a 30-second stretch to push the lead back to 14 points, 65-51. The Broncos chopped it back to 11 points on Gary's acrobatic lay in and made free throw on the ensuing possession. Western Michigan. The Broncos scratched to within eight points on a pair of free throws with less than but that was the closest WMU would get, falling in the MAC Semifinals for the eighth time in 11 trips.
QUOTES
Western Michigan Head Coach Steve Hawkins (opening statement):
“First of all Akron played a terrific basketball game. They shot the lights out. it was just too much for us too overcome. We showed a lot of fight in the second half, but every time we came back at them they hit big shots.”
On if he thinks Western Michigan deserves to be selected to the NIT
“I do, I think we are worthy of it. I know we are excited about it. We have a group of players right now that are hurting, but if we need to play a basketball game they are going to show up. We only played 4 non-conference home game and we were still able to win 20 games. We beat Davidson and Southern Illinois at home and lost to Northwestern in overtime.”
On the officiating
“I thought it was a fair officiated game. I'm always going to fight for the calls that I think we need, but I thought it was fair. It was physical, but it was physical both ways. Sometimes that favors one team more than the other.”
On Akron's defense on David Kool
“The story more for me was how well Akron shot the ball. We wanted to be disruptive. I think Keith Dambrot (Akron head coach) has done a really good job at evolving his team.”
David Kool, sophomore guard
On the game
“You have to tip your hat to them, they made a lot of unbelievable shots.”
On coming out of halftime
“Every good team makes a run and that's what we were hoping for, it just didn't happen today.”
Joe Reitz, senior center
On the game
“It was a very hard fought game. We knew Akron was going to be physical. The refs let us play some. It was a battle royale.”
On the loss
“It's tough when you put your heart and soul into something for four years and you come up short on reaching your goal of going to the NCAA Tournament. It's tough.”
Shawntes Gary, junior guard
On Joe Reitz
“He has been the best team captain of ant team I've been apart of. You see the way he plays. I think he was the best player in the MAC this season. He always had us ready to play.”
On the game
“In the second half, we played pretty good defense. They just knocked down big shots. At the end we needed a couple of stops and we were just never able to get them.”
