AKRON, Ohio -Despite shooting 25-for-29 from the free throw line, Western Michigan men's basketball could not extend its road win streak to three-straight games, falling at Akron, 83-71. Demetrius Ward and Flenard Whitfield each reached career highs in scoring in the loss.
The Broncos scored the game's first four points and led by five with just under four minutes gone in the game but WMU was not able to knock down the long range shot, going 0-for-12 from three-point land, while the Zips went 9-for-24 from beyond the arc. It wasn't so much that Akron knocked down three-point shots but more so the times in the game it did.
Five times on Wednesday night Akron answered an empty WMU offensive possession with a three pointer. The first came with the Zips leading 21-19 with 6:28 to go in the first half. Matt Stainbrook, who led the team with seven rebounds, missed on a lay up and Brett McKnight, who scored his 1,000th career point during the game, hit a three. The next came on the Zips' next possession after Juwan Howard Jr. missed a three attempt of his own. That pushed Akron's lead to six points and the home team never led by less than that margin the rest of the way.
Whitfield had the hot hand for Western Michigan in the first half, scoring 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Ward was right on his tail with nine points thanks to a perfect 7-for-7 performance at the line. In fact, the junior guard made a career-high 14 free throw attempts against Akron, making all of his attempts.
Ward scored in double figures for the seventh-straight game and scored 20 or more points in a game for the sixth time this season, dropping a career-high 26 points. Whitfield reached the 20-point plateau for the second time in his career, and this season, contributing a career-high 23 points thanks to a career-high 10 makes from the field on 16 attempts.
The duo accounted for 19 of the Broncos' 28 first-half points and for 49 of WMU's 71 during the game. The only other Bronco to score more than five points was Howard who finished with seven on 2-of-6 shooting.
WMU cut the Akron lead under 10 points five times during the second half but could never get closer than eight points away. Ward scored on a lay up with 15:15 to go to cut the Broncos' deficit to 46-38. Whitfield cut the deficit to nine on a made free throw at the 13:16 mark before Akron built the lead to its largest, 18 points, on a McKnight lay up with 4:44 remaining.
The Broncos made their final surge over the next 1:09 of game time, going on a 9-0 run to cut the deficit to 69-60. Howard capped the run with a lay up with 3:35 to go but the opportunistic Zips came down to the other end of the floor and Brett McClanahan knocked down one of his four shots from long range. He was one of four Akron players to score in double figures led by Nikola Cvetinovic's 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting.
Western Michigan has five of its last eight games at home, beginning with a match up with Ohio on Saturday, Feb. 12. The game, scheduled for a 4 p.m. start, is the second half of a doubleheader as the women's basketball team hosts Miami at 2 p.m. The men's game will start 30 minutes at the conclusion of the women's.
Fans can listen to all of the action for both games on the Bronco Radio Network and Bronco Insider subscribers can watch the action live at www.wmubroncos.com.
