KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan men's basketball team ran into a buzzsaw in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, and the Broncos fell 86-57 to the Cleveland State Vikings in University Arena on Wednesday.
With the loss, the Broncos conclude the regular season with a 20-14 record, marking the third straight 20-win season for WMU dating back to 2012.
Connar Tava and David Brown each tied for the team-high with 10 points on the evening, with Tava going 4-of-8 from the field and Brown contributing a 5-of-6 mark from the free throw line. Tucker Haymond started out the game strong, scoring nine points in the first half on 3-of-5 shooting from the field, and Austin Richie notched six points in his final game in a Bronco uniform. AJ Avery came off the bench in the first half to spark the Broncos, providing four points, five rebounds and a blocked shot in 20 minutes of action.
The Vikings seemingly couldn't miss, though, shooting 34-of-60 (.567) from the field and 14-of-28 (.500) from three-point range. Charlie Lee tied a University Arena record with eight three-pointers made and finished with 28 points on 10-of-13 shooting. Anton Grady added 21 points and 14 rebounds.
The closest the Broncos came was late in the first half, as WMU went on a 9-0 run to cut the Vikings' lead to just two possessions with 7:17 to go in the period. With the Broncos trailing 26-11 at the 11:13 mark, Avery went to the free throw line for two makes after ripping an offensive rebound away from the Vikings and drawing contact on the shot attempt. The Broncos picked up a stop on defense and on the next trip down the floor struck from long range, with Kellen McCormick burying an open three-pointer from the left wing to make it 26-16.
Avery worked both ends of the floor on the next two possessions, hauling in a defensive carom off an errant three-pointer by Trey Lewis and scoring off his own miss with 9:28 remaining to make it 26-18. Brown capped off the run with a pair of free throw makes at the 7:17 mark, making it 26-20 after drawing contact from Lewis.
Cleveland State picked the steam back up, though, pushing the lead to double-digits on a three-pointer by Lee with 5:45 to go in the half. Thomas Wilder hit a step-back jumper from the elbow to cut it to 11 points, and Haymond contributed two free throws with under four minutes remaining in the first half to make it 36-27, but the Broncos got no closer the rest of the game as the Vikings kept them at distance for the remainder.
