NASHVILLE, Tenn.- The Western Michigan men's basketball team fell to three-time defending Southland Conference champions Stephen F. Austin, 79-71, Thanksgiving Day at the Challenge in the Music City.

The Broncos fought back to cut a 16-point first half deficit to two with 6:45 left in the game but could not pull off the comeback.

The Lumberjacks' half-court high trap and deny defense caused problems for the Broncos who committed 21 turnovers. Western Michigan made a halftime adjustment to its offense and was able attack more efficiently in the second half when the team began to cut away at SFA's lead.

Sophomore point guard Thomas Wilder was the game's leading scorer, pumping in 23 points for the second consecutive contest. Wilder tallied 16 of those points in the second half, getting into the lane for 4-5 foot jumpers or taking the ball all the way to the rim.

Junior forward Tucker Haymond chipped in 19 points and a team-high nine rebounds. Sophomore Drake LaMont scored eight points and senior Taylor Perry had seven.

Stephen F. Austin returned four starters and seven letterwinners from a team that compiled a 29-5 record last season The Lumberjacks lost just 10 games in the last two years, going 62-10 under head coach Brad Underwood, who begins his third year.

“There was plenty of bad, plenty of good,” said WMU head coach Steve Hawkins. “The bad part was we turned the ball over entirely too much against their pressure and then missed layups when we did break it. It was almost a tale of two halves. In the second half, we literally put in a form of offense at halftime because we hadn't seen a full denial in the half court yet this year. We were a lot better in the second half and got to the rim a lot.

“We fought all the way back to a two-point game and then had a couple of break downs. They pulled down some timely offensive rebounds and we missed a defensive assignment and gave up a three-point play after we missed a free throw and that was a big, big change in the game.

“When you look at numbers, we won a lot of numbers, but we when you look at it the 21 turnovers to their 12 and they outscored us 26-11 at the free throw line those were key.”

Down 10, 55-45 with 11:15 remaining, two makes from LaMont, a layup from Jared Klein and two Wilder free throws helped WMU put together an 8-0 run to pull the Broncos within two, 55-53. A jumper by SFA's Thomas Walker and a bucket and one by Ty Charles after a missed free throw by Haymond swung the momentum back in the Lumberjacks' favor.

Stephen F. Austin hit 15-of-17 free throws and shot 50 percent (4-of-8) from the floor in the final seven minutes to halt any chance of a Bronco rally. SFA shot 92.9 percent from the charity stripe in the game, missing only twice (26-for-28).

WMU shot 44.1 percent from the floor in the game and was 11-for-15 from the free throw line. SFA shot 35.5 percent from the field.

Western Michigan (2-3) will face Liberty (3-2) tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. ET. The Flames also dropped their opening contest at the Challenge in the Music City Thursday, suffering a 73-62 loss to Appalachian State.