SAN JUAN, P.R. - The Western Michigan men's basketball team outscored their opponent in the second half, but the Broncos were unable to overcome a slow start in falling 69-55 to the Temple Owls in the opening game of the 5-Hour ENERGY Puerto-Rico Tip-Off. With the loss, the Broncos fall to 0-2 on the season. They will play the loser of the game between Iona and Purdue on Friday, Nov. 18 at 3:30 p.m. ET.
The Broncos outscored the Owls 34-32 in the second half and outshot Temple 48.0 percent to 44.8 percent, but it was not enough to recover from Temple's hot start. The Owls grabbed six offensive rebounds in the first four minutes of the game and opened on a 9-0 run, which was not broken until Nate Hutcheson nailed a three-pointer from the right wing at the 15:54 mark.
The Broncos evened up the battle on the boards in the second half, out-rebounding Temple 18-12 in the second half and outscoring the Owls 20-14 in the paint. Sophomore Matt Stainbrook scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half and notched seven of his 12 rebounds as the Broncos tried to claw their way back into the contest. Flenard Whitfield would cut the deficit to its smallest mark in the second half when he took a long pass in transition from Mike Douglas and laid it off the glass, making it 46-34 with 13:58 remaining in the game.
Temple, though, would seal the deal by scoring 10 straight points after that basket, and the Broncos would endure a two-minute scoring drought to fall behind too far to come back. The Broncos would score 16 of the last 23 points, with freshman Hayden Hoerdemann scoring his first collegiate points on a three-point shot with 4:14 remaining.
The brightest spot for the Broncos came from the bench, which showed significant improvement over the Broncos' effort against South Dakota State just five days earlier. The WMU bench was held to just four points in the first game of the year, but bounced back to outscore the Owls 16-4 in San Juan. Freshman Austin Richie contributed a team-high five points from the bench, including his first collegiate basket with a three-pointer with 3:03 remaining in the first half. Richie and sophomore Shayne Whittington each played a bench-high 19 minutes.
Matt Stainbrook finished the game with a double-double of 14 points and 12 rebounds. Whitfield finished with 11 points, six rebounds, and one assist. Hutcheson had nine points, five rebounds, and one block.
