BUFFALO, N.Y.- Western Michigan sophomore Seth Dugan tallied 18 points and 12 rebounds Saturday against Buffalo for his second career double-double. The 18 points was also a career high. The Broncos fell in the road contest, 66-54.

Junior Thomas Wilder scored nine of WMU's first 14 points and finished with 13 in the game. Senior Tucker Haymond had eight points and junior Drake Lamont had seven. Freshman Reggie Jones was held scoreless. Jones entered the contest as WMU's third leading scorer averaging 9.2 points per game.

Western Michigan led by five at halftime, and by as many as nine in the first half, but couldn't seem to get going in the second half. Buffalo pulled ahead for good on Blake Hamilton's layup with 12:39 left to play. Hamilton's layup sparked a 9-0 run that WMU couldn't recover from. The Broncos had a span of almost six minutes without a field goal.

"I thought the story of the game was their defensive guard play," said WMU head coach Steve Hawkins. "We haven't had our guards locked up like that really throughout the year. The job they did on Reggie and the job they did on Thomas, our playmakers, that was probably the biggest story of the game. We really struggled against their defense."

Western Michigan shot 32.2 percent from the floor and was just 2-for-11 from behind the arc. Wilder, Haymond and Jones combined were 7-for-26.

"We let some golden opportunities get away from us in the first half," Hawkins said. "We missed some point-blank layups and had some offensive rebounds where we didn't get putbacks. We had a chance to take a nine-point lead midway through the first half up to 13 or 15 and we didn't do it.

"Offensive rebounds were also a big factor. They had 16 offensive rebounds and we had 17, but that can't be a wash. That's the way that they have to score is with offensive rebounds and transition and we allowed that to happen."

Nick Perkins led the Buffalo squad with a game-high 21 points and 10 rebounds. Hamilton was just shy of a triple-double with 15 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds. Willie Connor had 12 points and Ikenna Smart pulled down nine rebounds, five offensive. The Bulls shot 37.5 percent from the floor and were 8-for-26 from three.

Buffalo improved its record to 9-10 overall and 3-3 in the Mid-American Conference. WMU slipped to 6-12 overall and 2-4 in league play. The Broncos return to Kalamazoo to host Akron (16-3, 6-0 MAC) on Tuesday at 7 p.m.