EAST LANSING, Mich. – The Western Michigan men's basketball team hung around deep into the second half, but 18th-ranked Michigan State pulled away late for an 80-62 victory over the Broncos at Breslin Center on Monday afternoon.
Chansey Willis Jr. paced Western Michigan (3-9) with 12 points, seven rebounds and six assists.
Max Burton went a perfect 5-for-5 from the field to tally 10 points.
Owen Lobsinger had eight points and six boards for the Brown and Gold.
After the Spartans (11-2) hit a three-pointer on the game's first possession, Western Michigan tallied the next eight points as part of an 11-2 run to grab an early 11-5 edge. MSU responded with 13 straight to move back ahead, 18-11. The Broncos notched the next two baskets to trim the margin to 18-15 at the halfway mark of the period.
With the advantage at 27-22, Michigan State scored 10 of the final 12 points of the half to take a 37-24 margin into the locker room.
Western Michigan came out firing at the start of the second half as it tallied the first 10 points after the break to close the gap to three, 37-34. MSU responded with the next five to make it 42-34. The Broncos worked their way back to within four, 49-45, but Michigan State countered with a 9-2 stretch to push the margin back to double-digits, 58-47.
WMU got as close as seven, 59-52, on a Lobsinger three-pointer with a little more than seven minutes to go, but the Spartans answered with a 14-4 run to push their lead back to double-digits for the remainder of the contest.
For the afternoon, the Broncos shot 41.4 percent (24-of-58) from the floor, while Michigan State connected on 50.0 percent (27-of-54) of its field goal attempts.
Western Michigan returns home on Saturday, Jan. 4, as it welcomes Toledo to town for the Mid-American Conference opener. Tip off is set for 12 pm, with the WMU women's team set to face Miami at approximately 2:30 pm in the second game of the basketball doubleheader at University Arena. For tickets to any Bronco basketball home game, visit
wmubroncos.com/tickets.
