YPSILANTI, Mich. – Trailing by five points at halftime on Saturday in Ypsilanti, the Western Michigan men's basketball team found itself in nearly the same exact situation to its first meeting of the season with Eastern Michigan when it headed into the locker room with a six-point deficit. That day, the Broncos outscored EMU 49-26 in the second half to earn a 79-62 comeback victory. The Brown and Gold pulled the same maneuver again on Saturday, outdueling the Eagles 48-29 after the break to collect a 76-62 road win and complete the season sweep over Eastern Michigan for the first time since the 2010-11 campaign.     
 
Brady Swartz made four three-pointers and led Western Michigan (9-16, 3-9 MAC) with 16 points, while EJ Ryans chipped in 13 points. The trio of Swartz, Jayden Brewer and Michael Sulaka collected a team-leading seven rebounds apiece to help the Brown and Gold own a 45-29 edge on the glass, their largest rebounding advantage against a MAC foe this season.
 
As it was in the first meeting between the two teams back on Jan. 10, Eastern Michigan (9-17, 3-10) got out on the front foot early, racing out to a 19-5 start. At 24-12, the Broncos rattled off 13 in a row to wipe out EMU's lead and take a 25-24 edge. The Eagles countered with a 9-3 stretch to take a 33-28 advantage into halftime.
 
The second half played out in similar fashion to the first game as well, with WMU hitting 6-of-9 second-half, three-pointers on the way to outscoring the Eagles 48-29 after the break. Eastern Michigan maintained a small lead until a nine-point burst put the Brown and Gold in front, 48-44, just past the halfway mark of the period. The Eagles fought back to make it a one-possession game on multiple occasions, but Western Michigan pushed its advantage into double-digits with a 7-0 run to make it 63-53 with five minutes to play. EMU got no closer than seven the rest of the way, and the Broncos iced the game from the free throw line, hitting all eight of their free throw attempts in the final two minutes.  
 
WMU shot 39.3 percent (24-of-61) from the floor, 56.3 percent (9-of-16) from three-point range and 82.6 percent (19-of-23) from the charity stripe. Eastern Michigan made 40.7 percent (24-of-59) of its field goal attempts.
 
Western Michigan returns to University Arena on Tuesday evening to take on Akron at 7 pm. For tickets to any WMU men's basketball home game, visit wmubroncos.com/tickets.