CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Western Michigan men's basketball team responded to a halftime deficit with a big run to pull within one possession, but the offensive firepower of Ohio proved to be too much as the Broncos fell 74-63 to the Bobcats in the semifinal round of the 2013 First Energy MAC Tournament.  With the loss, the Broncos fall to 20-12 on the season, and are left to wait for a postseason invitation.

Four Broncos reached double-figures in scoring, with Nate Hutcheson and Darius Paul matching the team-high with 16 points apiece; Brandon Pokley and David Brown eached added 10 points.  Shayne Whittington grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.

WMU got hot to start the second half, with Paul and Pokley keying the early turnaround for the Broncos.  Paul scored the first five points of the half for the Broncos, making 3-of-4 free throws in the first 90 seconds of play, and adding a lay-up at the 17:44 mark to make it 43-29.  Pokley tacked on to the run with a three-pointer from the right corner at the 17:13 mark, and added a jumper from the head of the key to make it just a nine-point game with 16:44 left.

Paul added a tip-in of an errant shot at the 15:47 mark to continue the Broncos' 14-4 run to start the half, with Hutcheson capping the rally with a pair of free throw makes.  Pokley cut the Bobcats' lead to just five points with another three-pointer from the right corner, making it 47-42 and causing the Bobcats to sweat.  Brown made it a four-point game with a pull-up jumper from the right side at the 11:07 mark, and Whittington cut the Bobcats' lead to a single possession with a hook shot to make it 48-46.

The Bobcats pushed their lead back up, though, going on a 10-4 run to make it a three-possession ballgame again.  Hutcheson scored a fast break dunk off a Whittington steal at the 5:01 mark to cut the lead to six points, but Cooper converted an old-fashioned three-point play at the 4:31 mark to extend the lead to nine points, and Jon Smith kept it a nine-point game with a dunk on the baseline with under three minutes remaining. 

Nick Kellogg and Paul traded three-pointers on consecutive possessions to make it 66-57, but the Bobcats pulled away late to seal the win.  Paul closed the scoring with a lay-up at the 18-second mark, but Ohio walked away with the win.

The beginning of the first half was a back and forth affair, but the Bobcats began to pull away after the first media timeout and took control of the game.  Darius Paul gave the Broncos an early lead with a turnaround jumper from the left wing at the 19:10 mark, and went on to tie the score at 4-4 with 16:35 to play in the first half.  The teams traded baskets less than a minute later, with Reggie Keely giving Ohio a two-point lead with a pair of free throw makes, and Brandon Pokley responding with a drive and a lay-up to make it 6-6.

The final tie of the half came at the 15:12 mark, when Austin Richie took a backdoor feed from Shayne Whittington and laid it in with the left hand, making it 8-8.  However, the Bobcats turned things up a notch for the remainder of the half, doubling up on the Broncos' score the rest of the way.  Ohio enjoyed its largest lead of the half at the 5:19 mark, when Nick Kellogg drained a three-pointer from the left corner to make it 34-15. 

Nate Hutcheson responded with a personal 5-0 run, making a lay-up at the 5:04 mark and drilling a triple of his own with 4:18 left in the half to make it 34-20.  However, D.J. Cooper made a long three-pointer with less than a minute to play in the half to set the halftime deficit at 17 points.