YPSILANTI, Mich. - The Western Michigan men's basketball team struggled to find its rhythm on offense in falling on the road on Tuesday, losing 56-37 to Eastern Michigan at the Convocation Center. With the loss, the Broncos fall to 9-6 on the season, 2-1 in Mid-American Conference play.

David Brown scored a game-high 18 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the floor and a 4-of-8 mark from three-point range, but his night was cut short after picking up his fifth foul with 1:28 remaining in the second half. Shayne Whittington pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds to go with six points, three steals, and two blocked shots, and Connar Tava added six points and six rebounds as well.

WMU's offense was stymied by the Eagles, especially in the first half, when the Broncos shot just 4-of-20 from the field and scored just 14 points. WMU played the Eagles fairly evenly in second half, finding themselves out-scored just 24-23 in the final 20 minutes of play. The Broncos out-rebounded the Eagles 38-31 and grabbed 14 offensive rebounds, but 26 turnovers kept the Broncos from overcoming the deficit in full.

The Broncos put their best push of the night on midway through the second half, when they cut a 19-point deficit down to just nine points late in the half. With the Broncos trailing 36-17, Brown drove and made a lay-up at the 15:31 mark to start the Broncos' attempt at a comeback. Brown drained a three-pointer from the deep left corner exactly one minute later to cut the deficit to 14 points, and the senior guard added two free throws to make it 36-14 with 13:03 to play.

Jared Klein stepped into a three-pointer from the deep left wing to make it 37-27 with 11:19 remaining in the half, and Connar Tava cut the lead to less than 10 points with a free throw make at the 9:31 mark.

The closest the Broncos got the rest of the way was with 7:44 remaining, when Brown drained his fourth three-pointer of the night to make it 39-31. However, the Eagles out-scored the Broncos 17-6 to close out the game and take the victory.

The first half was not kind to the Broncos, who despite opening on an 8-3 run fell behind early to the Eagles. Brown drilled two three-pointers to start the game for the Broncos, knocking down a left wing shot at the 18:49 mark and another from the right side with 17:19 remaining in the half to give the Broncos an 8-3 edge over the Eagles. From there, though, the Eagles embarked on a 21-2 run, holding the Broncos without a field goal until Mario Matasovic scored on a reverse lay-up at the 7:42 mark of the first half.

Connar Tava made a pair of free throws with 5:51 remaining to pull the Broncos to within 24-14, but the Eagles scored the final eight points of the half, including a three-pointer from Raven Lee with less than 10 seconds left, to take a 32-14 lead at halftime.