KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan men's basketball team recorded its largest win of the season Thursday night as the Broncos defeated Alabama A&M 80-50 in University Arena. The Broncos improved to 4-8 overall and 4-1 at home heading into Mid-American Conference (MAC) play, which begins next week with two tough games at Ohio and at Akron.
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The Broncos opened the game on an 8-0 run and trailed just once following that. WMU used a 10-0 run going into halftime to take a 36-22 lead at the break where the team extended that run to 18-0 early in the second half and had the Bulldogs doubled-up with the score 44-22. AAMU was never able to bring it within 20 points following the big Bronco run.
"There's a major difference between winning and playing well, and I really thought we played well tonight," head coach Steve Hawkins said. "This is three games in a row where we've played well. We didn't get the result we wanted at Washington and UCLA, but we played better tonight. We were where we wanted to be with the intensity and we did a lot of things more fundamentally sound."
WMU dominated in all aspects of the game, including field goal percentage (46.9-36.5), rebounding (45-24), assists (19-10), blocks (6-0), steals (8-3), 3-pointers made (9-4) and free throws made (11-8). The Broncos also finished with 16 second chance points off of 15 offensive rebounds, while the Bulldogs finished with two second chance points.
The crowd was able to see a couple of high-flying acts from the Broncos, first as Thomas Wilder, who was honored pregame for scoring 1,000 career points, took a steal all the way to the other end for a fast break dunk in the first half and second as senior Tucker Haymond took a steal coast-to-coast for a ferocious one-handed slam over a Bulldog defender early in the second half.
Wilder led all scorers with 19 points, 13 of which came in the second half. Wilder, who went 4-for-5 from beyond the arc and tied for the team lead with four assists, has now scored in double-figures in all 12 games this season. Three other Broncos reached double-figures, as sophomore Josh Davis finished with 12 on 5-of-8 shooting, Haymond recorded 11 and freshman Brandon Johnson went for 10 points and seven assists. Senior Drake LaMont led the team with 10 rebounds while Haymond had eight.
"Everyone (in the MAC) at this point in time is 0-0, nobody has a win and nobody has a loss," Hawkins added. "Everyone has gotten to this point in the season in different ways. We took the path of a very difficult schedule to try and rough up our young guys and get them prepared for the rigors of MAC play."
The Broncos open MAC play on Tuesday, Jan. 2 at Ohio with game time scheduled for 7 p.m. The team will stay on the road to face Akron on Friday, Jan. 6 at 6:30. Akron and Ohio were picked to finished first and second, respectively, in the MAC East according to the preseason coaches' poll.
