CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Western Michigan men's basketball team used a 17-1 run in the second half to build a huge lead, and the Broncos defeated the Northern Illinois Huskies 71-54 in the second round of the 2012 First Energy MAC Tournament in Cleveland on Wednesday. With the win, the Broncos improve to 14-19 on the season, and will face the fourth-seeded Kent State Golden Flashes in the quarterfinal game on Thursday. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Mike Douglas would be named the Player of the Game with his 19-point performance, and senior Demetrius Ward would score 13 points to become the 36th member of the 1,000-Point Club at Western Michigan. Ward would drive to the hoop and score on a lay-up at the 14:21 mark to break the millennium mark.
WMU led just 39-37 with 16:24 remaining in the second half, but the Broncos began scoring at a furious pace to widen the gap considerably. Douglas started things off with a lay-up at the 16:08 mark, and would add a pair of free throws on the ensuing possession to stretch the lead to six points. Douglas would drain a wide-open three at the 12:58 mark to give the Broncos a 50-38 lead and stretch the lead to double-digits for the first time.
The Broncos weren't done, however. Douglas would score the next four points for the Broncos, and Shayne Whittington and Austin Richie would add lay-ups to give the Broncos a 56-38 lead with 10 minutes remaining in the game. Ward would tie that 18-point lead at the 5:43 mark with a triple at the 6:04 mark, and Douglas would make it stand one more time with a pair of free throws just 20 seconds later.
The Broncos got their largest lead of the night in the waning minutes, when Caleb Dean notched a lay-up at the 1:42 mark to make it 67-49. Dean would add one more lay-up, and the Broncos would walk off the court with the final score 71-54.
The Broncos began to pull away early in the second half, as they outscored the Huskies 23-8 through the first 10 minutes of the period. Douglas torched the Huskies through the first portion of the half, scoring 13 points in just 10 minutes of play to reach 15 points for the game.
The Huskies got the early jump on the Broncos, opening the first half on a 7-2 run that was capped by an Aksel Bolin three-pointer. Matt Stainbrook cut the lead to three points with a lay-up at the 16:44 mark, and Douglas would score on a lay-up at the 15:17 mark to slash the deficit to one point.
When Tony Nixon scored on a three-pointer at the 11:42 mark to give the Huskies a 14-10 lead, the Broncos leaned on their own three-point specialist to even the score. Brandon Pokley drained a three from the right wing at the 10;36 mark to make it 14-13, and would make another at 9:54 to tie the game 16-16. The Broncos took their first lead of the night at the 7:11 point when Demetrius Ward knocked down a three on the fast break, giving WMU at 21-18 advantage.
The Huskies would take a 22-21 lead with just under six minutes remaining, but the Broncos would score on three straight free throws from Pokley and Flenard Whitfield to give the Broncos the lead permanently for the first half. Douglas would score on a lay-up at the 3:47 mark, recovering a blocked and putting it up as the time expired on the shot clock to make it 26-22. Pokley would make one more triple, scoring from the left corner to make it 31-25; NIU would score once more to cut the lead to 31-28 at the half.
