KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan men's basketball team ran into one of the hottest teams in the Mid-American Conference on Saturday, losing 97-87 to the Toledo Rockets at University Arena to fall to 16-11 overall and 7-7 in MAC play.
Thomas Wilder scored a game- and career-high 34 points against the Rockets on 10-of-12 shooting, shattering his previous single-game best of 18 points recorded against Bowling Green and representing the second-highest single-game scoring mark for a Bronco this season. Just behind him was David Brown, who finished with 29 points on 8-of-13 shooting and a 5-of-10 mark from three-point range. Drake LaMont finished with nine points and a team-high five rebounds.
The Broncos shot 49.1 percent from the floor and 40.9 percent from three-point range but were unable to slow down the hot-shooting Rockets, who finished at 60 percent from the field and outrebounded WMU 31-23. The two teams combined for 47 personal fouls, including 29 in the second half, which led to gaudy free throw totals for both WMU and Toledo. The Broncos finished having gone 24-of-29 from the stripe for an 82.8 free throw percentage.
The first half was good back-and-forth showdown between the MAC West rivals, with maintaining control but unable to put away the Broncos early on. The Rockets opened up a 12-10 lead that was quashed at the 13:00 mark by Austin Richie, who swiped the ball from Jonathan Williams on the perimeter and pushed it ahead to AJ Avery on the fast break for a two-fisted dunk to tie the score. Justin Drummond put Toledo ahead 23-16 with 9:26 to go in the half, but Wilder went on a personal 7-0 run to tie the score, closing it out with a fast break lay-up after Taylor Perry made a defensive play against Williams to again snatch the ball away from the Rockets. The Broncos never quite got over the hump, though; they trailed by just two points with 40 seconds left after a three-pointer by Brown, but JD Weatherspoon scored on a lob dunk to make it 42-38 entering the halftime break.
The closest that WMU got for the rest of the game came just a little over two minutes into the second half when Brown snaked his way through the Toledo line-up and laid it in to make it 44-42. The Broncos got no closer the rest of the way, though, and eventually the Rockets pushed the lead to double-digits on a three-pointer by Stuckey Mosley, making it 57-47 with 11:41 to play. The advantage dipped below
