STONY BROOK, N.Y.- After playing a less than impressive first half, Western Michigan pulled itself up by the bootstraps and overcame a 32-23 halftime deficit, posting a 51-40 win over Holy Cross at Stony Brook's Seawolves Classic Monday.

With the victory, Western Michigan improves to 7-4 on the season.

Western Michigan was sparked by the bench play of freshman LaTondra Brooks, who defensively wreaked havoc for Holy Cross. Brooks had six steals in the game and continuously disrupted the Crusaders' offense with her quick hands. Midway through the second half, she had a pivotal 3-point play with a layup and foul off a steal that cut a seven-point deficit down to four.

“I told our coaching staff coming down here, I really thought Lala was ready to break out, and today she was a game-changer,” said WMU head coach Shane Clipfell. “She got in the guards' heads a little bit and they didn't want to put it on the floor.”

The Broncos held Holy Cross to only two field goals and eight total points in the second half. Both of those makes for the Crusaders came in the first four minutes of the half, as the team went the final 15:56 of the game without a field goal. Western Michigan trailed by 15 points, 38-23, at the time of Holy Cross' last made field goal and allowed only three points - all off free throws - over that final 15:56.

“We were resilient," Clipfell said. "We talked about in the first half how everything that could have gone wrong really went wrong for us. We fought off imploding from within and finally came together. I think it can be a huge growing point for us, having been in that situation. We haven't been in that situation in a while.”

WMU responded to the rebounding challenge after being out-rebounded by 17 in a four-point loss to Stony Brook yesterday. The Broncos pulled down 40 rebounds, four more than Holy Cross, with Marquisha Harris leading the way with 11 boards. Miracle Woods and Michelle O'Brien each had nine rebounds apiece, O'Brien grabbing eight of those in the first half.

Woods totaled a team-high 17 points, as well as a career-high three assists, one block and a steal. Junior point guard Alex Morton had 16 points, keeping WMU afloat with eight in the first half.

Western Michigan committed 14 first-half turnovers and 23 for the game, however forced Holy Cross into 27 turnovers, including 18 in the second half.

WMU shot just 29.5 percent for the game and scored nearly half of its points (23 of 51) from the free throw line.

It was the final non-conference game of the season for WMU, which opens Mid-American Conference play with back-to-back home games against Akron (Jan. 3 - 2 p.m.) and Ohio (Jan. 7 - 7 p.m.).