SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Western Michigan men's basketball team fell on the road at Notre Dame on Tuesday, 86-65, at UND's Purcell Pavilion in South Bend.
Titus Wright led the Broncos (2-6) in scoring with 14 points on 7-of-10 shooting. He also secured a team-high six rebounds.
Seth Hubbard joined Wright in double-figures with 13 points, while
Jefferson De La Cruz Monegro and
B. Artis White chipped in nine points apiece. White handed out a team-best four assists.
Western Michigan hit four of its first five field goals on the way to an 8-5 start in the opening minutes. The Fighting Irish (4-4) answered with a 12-2 run to move into a 17-10 lead at the 14:13 mark of the first half. After a four-point spurt from WMU, Notre Dame reeled off a 15-3 surge to grab its biggest cushion of the opening stanza, 32-17.
At 35-22, WMU rattled off a 12-2 run to close the gap to 37-34. The Fighting Irish then hit a three-pointer as the first half expired to take a 40-34 advantage into the locker room.
Wright gave the Broncos the first bucket of the second half to trim the gap to 40-36, but Notre Dame responded with 10 in a row as part of a 16-2 run which gave the hosts a 56-38 lead with 13:53 to play. Western Michigan countered with a 10-2 spurt to get back to within 10, 58-48. A Hubbard three-pointer at the 8:10 mark briefly brought the margin to single-digits, 62-53, but the Fighting Irish quickly pushed their advantage back into double-digits, where it stayed for the remainder of the evening.
The Broncos connected on 41.3 percent (26-of-63) from the field for the evening, while Notre Dame shot 59.2 percent (29-of-49). WMU committed a season-low nine turnovers, while forcing the Fighting Irish into 13 miscues.
Western Michigan returns to University Arena on Saturday to face Youngstown State at 1 pm. For tickets to any WMU home men's basketball game this season, visit
wmubroncos.com/tickets.