BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Western Michigan shot 66.7 percent from long range and scored 41 first-half points to take a 16-point lead into halftime and walked out of Anderson Arena for the last time with a 75-61 win over Bowling Green on Saturday evening. Juwan Howard Jr., celebrating his 19th birthday, paced the Broncos with 20 points and 10 rebounds for the second double-double of his young career.
The Broncos, playing on the road against a team atop of the Mid-American Conference's East Division for the second-straight game, went 6-for-9 from beyond the arc led by Howard's 3-for-3 performance from long range. Leading 22-18 with 7:54 left before the break, Mike Douglas hit a three pointer, starting a 14-0 run that put WMU in control for good.
Nate Hutcheson followed with a jumper and Howard gave the Broncos their first double-digit lead of the game on the first of three-straight three-point field goals in three-straight possessions. The scoring onslaught took WMU's lead from 27-18 to 36-18 over 2:49 of game time.
Western Michigan held the Falcons without a point over 4:55 during the run. The Broncos pushed its lead to 19 points on Demetrius Ward's three pointer with just eight seconds to go before halftime, its largest advantage of the game. Ward scored in double figures for the sixth-straight game, finishing with 15 points. He notched over half of his points at the free throw line, finishing a perfect 8-for-8.
In fact, Western Michigan was lights out at the free throw line against Bowling Green. The Broncos were a perfect 5-for-5 in the first half and 11-for-12 in the second, finishing the game 16-for-17 (94.1 percent).
Bowling Green would not go away in the second half, cutting the Broncos' lead all the way down to five points on a pair of Scott Thomas free throws with 3:50 remaining. Thomas finished with 15 points. Howard hit a free throw and Douglas added a lay up to push the lead back to eight but A'uston Calhoun, the game's leading scorer with 23 points, cut it back to six on two more free throws. The Falcons would cut their deficit to six once more on a Thomas lay up but would never get closer.
Howard scored on a lay up and Ward knocked down a pair of three throws to push WMU's lead back to double digits for good. From there it was all free throws for the Broncos with Ward hitting a pair and Howard making good on all four attempts over the final 41 seconds.
Flenard Whitfield and Alex Wolf nearly hit double digits against Bowling Green, scoring nine apiece. Whitfield scored seven of his nine in the first half and Wolf scored his nine off the bench on 3-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc.
Western Michigan will continue its road trip on Wednesday, Feb. 9, when the Broncos travel back to Ohio for the third-straight game to take on Akron at 7:30 p.m. The game will air live on SportsTime Ohio and can be heard on the Bronco Radio Network.
