KALAMAZOO, Mich. - The Western Michigan men's basketball team lost in heartbreaking fashion on Senior Night, as the Eastern Michigan Eagles scored with less than one second remaining to steal a 54-53 win at University Arena on Wednesday. With the loss, the Broncos fall to 12-18 on the season, with a 6-9 record in Mid-American Conference play.
The Broncos erased the Eagles' six-point lead over the final 5:48 of the second half, pulling to within four points when Shayne Whittington scored on a lay-up at the 4:17 mark. Mike Douglas would score two of his game-high 15 points just one possession later, shaving the lead to just 48-46 with 3:27 remaining in the game. Brandon Pokley would make it 50-49 with a three-pointer at the 1:34 mark, and WMU would finally kick the door down at the 1:03 mark when Flenard Whitfield tied the game with a free throw and a minute to play.
The Broncos would take a one-point lead with 16 seconds remaining when Whitfield drove to the hoop, scoring a lay-up and drawing a foul from Quintin Dailey. Whitfield would make the ensuing free throw to give WMU a 53-52 lead. However, EMU's Darrell Lampley would drop in a lay-up with just one second remaining to give the Eagles the lead and allow them to sneak out with a 54-53 win.
Douglas would finished tied for the game-high with 15 points on a perfect 6 of 6 shooting night from the field, while Whitfield would have 14 total points. As a team, the Broncos shot 47.5 percent from the field, though they went just 4 of 18 from three-point range.
The Eagles led by as many as eight points in the second half, taking a 36-28 lead at the 16:16 mark. The Broncos would start chipping away at the three-score lead when Douglas dropped a three-pointer from the corner to make it 36-31; he would drive to the hoop and score on a lay-up on the very next possession to make it 36-33 with 15:20 remaining. Douglas would do his part later in the half to make it just a two-point game, dropping his second three of the night to make it 38-36 as the Broncos capped a 10-2 run.
The first half resembled the teams' meeting earlier this season, with the Broncos taking the lead but remaining unable to pull away from the Eagles. Whitfield gave the Broncos an 8-6 lead with 11:51 remaining when he notched a lay-up, and Muhammed Conteh would score one possession later when he pulled down an offensive rebound, laid it in, and drew a foul. Conteh would cap the possession with a free throw to make it 11-6, and Shayne Whittington would cap a 7-0 WMU run with a lay-up at the 10:13 mark.
Nate Hutcheson would rebuild that seven-point lead with a free throw at the 7:07 mark, giving the Broncos a 17-10 lead. WMU held the Eagles without a field goal for nearly six minutes in the first half, but EMU woke up late and began to push the Broncos back on their heels. After Antonio Green cut the lead to three points at the 5:24 mark, Whitfield would score on a beautiful spin move to the hoop to notch a lay up. Whitfield would hit a 12-foot jumper at the 4:29 mark to maintain the five-point lead, and would make another at the 2:28 mark to give his team a 23-20 lead.
Eastern Michigan continued to cut down the lead and tied the score 45 seconds remaining in the first half on a Green three-pointer, but Shayne Whittington would re-take the lead for the Broncos with a two-handed dunk with 12 seconds remaining. The Eagles would lead entering the locker room, though, when Sims made an off-balance three-pointer to make it 26-25 at half.
