KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan women's basketball team dropped a tough 80-68 home contest against Mid-American Conference West foe Toledo Wednesday night.

With the loss, Broncos fall to 13-9 overall and 5-5 in the MAC while the Rockets improved to 11-9 overall and 6-3 in the MAC.

The free throw disparity played a huge part of the game, as the Rockets went 28-of-32 after starting a perfect 14-of-14 while the Broncos went 3-of-9. 28 made free throws is a season-high against WMU while the three made by Western Michigan is a season-low. Overall, the Broncos shot 49-2-percent while holding the Rockets to 45.1-percent. WMU, who came into this game as the MAC leader in 3-point field goal percentage, upped its average going 7-for-15 from beyond the arc.

The Broncos scored the first basket of the game to take a quick lead, but the Rockets fought back and held on to the lead for the rest of the first half taking a 32-27 lead into the break. WMU regained the lead once more with 4:04 left in the third quarter as senior Jessica Jessing connected on a corner three, but the lead quickly went away as the Rockets went on a 19-5 run to end the third quarter and lead 58-46 heading into to the fourth quarter.

In the final quarter, the Broncos were able to cut the lead to six points with 2:38 to play but the Rockets were too good from the charity stripe, where they scored their final 10 points of the game.
Junior Meredith Shipman, who set the WMU single game record with nine made 3-pointers earlier this season against Toledo, led the team with 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting and 4-of-7 from beyond the arc. She came into this game ranked No. 9 in the nation in 3-point shooting at 44.8-percent. Jessing finished second on the team with 13 points and also hit on three 3-pointers. Seniors Alex Morton and Miracle Woods along with sophomore Alexis Parks each had eight points. Morton led the team with five assists and freshman Breanna Mobley led with five rebounds.

For the Rockets, Janice Monakana led all scorers with a career-high 25 points including a perfect 14-of-14 performance from the free-throw line and went 3-of-4 from beyond the arc. Brenae Harris had 16 points, five rebounds and four assists while Kaayla McIntyre added 12 points. 

WMU returns to action on Saturday with a matchup against rival Eastern Michigan on the road with game time scheduled for 2 p.m.