ATHENS, Ohio -- The Western Michigan men's basketball team fell to the hot-shooting Ohio Bobcats 89-58 to open Mid-American Conference (MAC) play Tuesday night at the Convocation Center. With the loss, the Broncos fell to 4-9 overall and 0-1 in the MAC while the Bobcats, who finished with the most MAC East first place votes in the preseason coaches poll, improve to 9-3 and 1-0 in the MAC.
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Ohio started the game by making it's first three 3-pointers and went 9-for-16 from beyond the arc in the first half. The Broncos were never able to recover from the Bobcats terrific start, as once Ohio went up double-figures it stayed that way for the rest of the game. Ohio finished with 16 made 3-pointers in the game, which is the most against the Broncos this season and a season high by Ohio.
"We knew they were capable of shooting really well from 3-point range, but we let them start out on fire," head coach
Steve Hawkins said. "That had us back on our heels and I think it really affected our offense. We were playing catch-up from early on and they stayed hot throughout."
WMU showed promise midway through the second half, where the team used an 8-0 run and held Ohio scoreless for over 4:00 minutes, but the Bobcats shooting put a stop to the Broncos run once again.
Junior guard
Thomas Wilder finished one point shy of of a double-double, with nine points and tying a career-high with 10 rebounds. He snapped his streak of scoring in double-figures, which he has done in every game this season leading up to Ohio. Senior
Tucker Haymond tied for the team lead in points with nine and finished with eight rebounds. Sophomore
Bryce Moore added eight points including two 3-pointers.
The Broncos will stay on the road for one more game, traveling to face MAC preseason favorite Akron on Friday, Jan. 6 at 6:30 p.m. with the game being broadcasted on CBS Sports Network. WMU will then return to Kalamazoo for a two-game home stand, first facing Toledo on Tuesday, Jan. 10 at 7 p.m. then hosting Kent State on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 2 p.m.
