HOUSTON – On the night where he went over 1,000 points for his collegiate career, Western Michigan senior guard Lamar Norman Jr. tallied a career-high 36, 23 of which came in the second half, to help the Broncos begin the Owl Invitational with a 90-84 victory at Houston Christian on Friday night.
 
Norman's 36 points came on 10-of-16 shooting and a perfect 12-of-12 at the free throw line. The 12 free throw attempts and makes were both career highs for the senior. The 12-of-12 performance at the free throw line marked the 13th time in Western Michigan program history a player has been perfect from the free throw line on a minimum of 12 attempts.
 
Just past the midway point of the second half, Norman connected on a three-pointer to surpass the 1,000-point mark for his collegiate career. He finished the night with 1,011 points as a collegian, with 331 coming at Duquesne and 680 at WMU.
 
Three other players scored in double-figures for Western Michigan (2-2), with Seth Hubbard and Tafari Simms each contributing 13 points off of the Bronco bench, while Titus Wright picked up 11 points. JaVaughn Hannah chipped in nine points and led WMU with a career-high eight rebounds.
 
The Broncos picked up the first four points of the night, but Houston Christian (1-3) answered with the next six to take its first lead at the 14:43 mark. With WMU holding a 9-8 edge, the Huskies used a 9-2 run to move back ahead, 17-11. The HCU advantage climbed as high as eight on a couple of occasions, the last of which came at 29-21 with 6:38 to play until halftime.
 
Western Michigan countered with six straight points to get within two, 29-27, but the Huskies worked the margin back to seven, 36-29, with four minutes remaining in the half. Trailing 39-33 with just under two minutes left until the break, the Broncos rattled off the final eight points of the period, capped by a Shemani Fuller dunk just before the clock expired, to take a 41-39 edge into the locker room.
 
The Huskies tallied six of the first eight points after halftime to regain a 47-43 edge. The two teams traded baskets for much of the opening 10 minutes of the second half, with Houston Christian maintaining a lead of between one and six points.
 
HCU held a 68-64 advantage entering the final 10 minutes. At the 9:36 mark, Norman buried a three-pointer to jumpstart a 9-2 run which put WMU back on top, 73-70, with 7:32 to play. Back-to-back Houston Christian baskets briefly gave the hosts' a one-point edge, 74-73, but an 8-2 spurt pushed the Broncos back into the lead, 81-76, with 5:44 on the clock.
 
Houston Christian drew to within two multiple times in the final minutes, including 86-84 with 34 seconds left. Two points was as close as the Huskies got however, as Norman iced the game from there for WMU with four more free throws.
 
Both teams were above 50 percent from the floor for the evening, with Western Michigan connecting on 31-of-54 (57.4 percent), of its field goal attempts, while HCU made 31-of-59 (52.5 percent) from the field. The Broncos were especially hot in the second half, hitting 15-of-23 (65.2 percent) in the second half, including 6-of-7 three-point attempts. WMU also converted 20-of-22 (90.9 percent) at the free throw line.
 
For the third time in its first four games, Western Michigan had the advantage on the glass, as the Broncos outrebounded the Huskies, 34-24.
 
Western Michigan continues play at the Owl Invitational on Saturday evening at Rice. The contest is set for a 6 pm tip. The game will be streamed on CUSA.TV and available on the Bronco Media Network.
 
WMU returns to University Arena on Saturday, Nov. 26, to take on Cleveland State. To purchase tickets to any Western Michigan men's basketball home game this season, visit wmubroncos.com/tickets.