MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – The Western Michigan men's basketball team held a halftime lead on the road and looked poised for an upset, but the Broncos were unable to hold off the high-flying Central Michigan Chippewas in falling 70-65 at McGuirk Arena on Saturday. With the loss, the Broncos Fall to 14-9 overall, 5-5 in Mid-American Conference play.
Drake LaMont recorded his first career double-double with a great game on the inside, posting 17 points and 10 rebounds while going 8-of-11 from the field. David Brown tied that game-high in scoring 17 points of his own on a 7-of-16 mark from the field, and two other players – Connar Tava and Thomas Wilder – finished with 12 points.
The Broncos controlled the glass throughout the entire game, out-rebounding the Chippewas 37-28 and out-scoring them 46-22 in the paint. However, the Chippewas turned to an aggressive defensive strategy to erase their deficit, outscoring the Broncos 11-0 in points off turnovers in the second half and forcing 10 giveaways in the final 20 minutes.
Everything went the Broncos' way in the first 20 minutes of action, as WMU jumped out to a double-digit lead late in the first half and was doing a good job of keeping the Chippewas at bay. The teams traded leads back and forth early on but the Broncos took it for good in the first half after Tava spun around a man and rolled one in with his right hand to make it 22-21. Brown pushed the lead to three points at the 6:50 mark of the half when Tava bounced him a backdoor pass which he converted to a lay-up.
Wilder got into the fray on the next defensive possession by picking Braylon Rayson's pocket and racing down the court, going up with the right hand and laying it in to make it 26-21. The freshman point guard did the same thing to Austin Keel with 5:18 to play in the half, stripping him of the ball and laying it in on the fast break to give the Broncos a seven-point advantage. Taylor Perry drilled a three-pointer from the right corner at the 3:09 mark to make it an eight-point edge, and Tava gave WMU its first double-digit lead of the night with a pair of free throw makes less than a minute later. LaMont closed out the scoring in the first half with a heads up play as time expired, tipping in an offensive rebound with 0.1 seconds left to put the Broncos ahead 39-30 at the break.
The Broncos pushed the lead to as many as 13 points in the second half, going ahead 47-34 at the 13:40 mark when LaMont made a hook shot over John Simons. The Chippewas began to heavily press on defense the rest of the way, though, erasing the deficit and tying the game at 52 with 8:27 remaining in regulation. They took the lead for good with 1:15 remaining when Simons broke a 61-61 deadlock with a three from the left wing, and the Chips went 6-of-6 from the free throw line down the stretch to seal the win.
