TOLEDO, Ohio – Western Michigan women's basketball came up short this afternoon, falling on the road by a final score of 74-61. The result today moves the Broncos to 16-13 on the season, and 10-10 against Mid-American Conference opponents.

The contest began in favor of WMU thanks to a quick bucket from redshirt sophomore Taylor Williams off a feed from sophomore guard Lauren Ross. The Broncos struck again shortly after as sophomore guard Megan Wagner found the net from deep. Toledo responded with points of their own, and held a 9-7 edge at the 4:09 mark of the first. The two teams traded scores for the remainder of the quarter, and the buzzer rang as the Broncos held a narrow 17-15 advantage at the end of one.

Quarter number two was much of the same, with the score knotted at 26 apiece at the 4:14 mark. Taylor Williams continued her strong play, adding a pair of layups prior to the second media timeout. Senior guard Maddie Watters channeled her inner James Harden with a filthy step-back three, followed by a drive to the rack for another bucket by Lauren Ross to even things back up. Watters sent another triple through the net while junior guard Sydney Shafer scooped a layup home, and the Broncos found themselves down by a single point at the break, trailing 32-31.

Williams notched nine points and four boards, while Watters entered the locker room with nine points of her own on 3-4 from beyond the arc. As a group, Western Michigan had a very efficient first half shooting the ball, netting 12 of its 22 attempts (54.5 percent) from the field and 4-10 (40 percent) from three-point range in addition to sinking all three attempts from the charity stripe through the first 20 minutes of play.

Toledo came out of the locker room and outscored WMU 12-8 in the opening five minutes of the second half. Williams and Ross each added a bucket while redshirt senior forward Reilly Jacobson knocked one down from deep to keep the Broncos within striking distance. However, the Rocket continued to push their advantage despite great effort on both sides of the ball from the entire WMU team.

Reilly Jacobson shouldered most of the Bronco scoring in the third, tallying 10 points in the quarter alone on 4-7 (57.1 percent) from the field. Jacobson also flew around defensively, hounding the UT post players and causing problems for the Rocket guards.

The fourth and final quarter essentially mirrored the third, as Toledo continued to build its lead. The Broncos refused to quit, however, and cut the UT lead to single digits at the 2:37 mark thanks to a driving layup from Lauren Ross. Eight points was the closest WMU would get unfortunately, as Toledo sank free throws down the stretch to close out the afternoon.

Taylor Williams was the high-scorer for Western Michigan in the contest, finishing with 17 points on 7-13 (53.8 percent) shooting while also grabbing six boards and swiping two steals despite foul trouble looming for the majority of her afternoon. Reilly Jacobson added 12 points, two rebounds, and a pair of blocks during her day, while Maddie Watters contributed nine points on 3-6 from the field as well.

As a group, WMU connected on 23 of 52 shot attempts (44.2 percent) and 7 of 19 (36.8 percent) from three-point territory. The Broncos also scored 12 points off of turnovers, 30 points in the paint, and 19 points off the bench. A large part of the difference in the ballgame was at the free throw line, as Toledo shot a total of 30 free throws while WMU got 13 chances from the stripe in a bout that featured eight ties and a whopping 11 lead changes.

The Broncos now gear up for where it counts most as they prepare to head to Cleveland for the Mid-American Conference Tournament and a matchup with the Buffalo Bulls. The Broncos and Bulls are slated for the third game on Wednesday, March 9 inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

An official game time will be announced closer to the end of the second game that day as each game begins 30 minutes after the previous one ends. The WMU/UB matchup will likely begin around 4 p.m. and will be available for streaming via ESPN+. Ticket and parking information can be found HERE. We cannot wait to see you in Cleveland!

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