KALAMAZOO -- It took overtime on Wednesday night for the Bronco men’s basketball team (10-19, 7-8) to knock off the Ball State Cardinals (13-15, 7-8), 84-82, in front of 2,616 fans at University Arena. With the win the Broncos are now tied with Ball State for first place in the MAC West with one game left in the regular season.
Senior guard Shawntes Gary led the Broncos with a career-high 27 points, 21 of which came in the first half. The high flyer also showed off his range early, hitting four three-pointers in the first half, which is also a career high. His six rebounds secured his spot in the WMU record book as he became only the fourth player in school history to tally 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, and 100 steals in a career.
Overtime would have never been possible had David Kool not dribbled the length of the court and let off the game tying 16 foot jumper with just 1.3 seconds left to play, knotting the game at 71-71. A last ditch effort by BSU’s Jarrod Jones fell short at the buzzer and sent the game into the extra period.
WMU started overtime on a 10-2 run to jump out to an eight-point lead, 81-73, with 1:14 left in the game. The Broncos appeared to have the game wrapped up at that point, but the Cardinals went on a 7-0 run of their own to cut the lead to just one-point, 81-80, with 22 seconds remaining. But it was clutch free throw shooting (6-of-10) in overtime by the Broncos that enabled them to hold onto the lead in the extra period.
Kool finished the game with 22 points, six of which came in the final 54 seconds of regulation and nine came in the overtime period. Freshman Flenard Whitfield scored a career-high 13 points in just 17 minutes and grabbed three rebounds before fouling out.
WMU shot 50 percent from the floor (30-of-60) for only the second time this season and made ten three-pointers (10-of-21) for the fifth time in 2008-09. The Broncos pushed the ball up court all night and outscored BSU 19-4 on fast break points.
Ball State took its first lead of the game with just under five minutes left to play, 64-61, and expanded the lead to six-points with only 53 seconds left in the game. A late comeback looked improbable for the Broncos, but senior Derek Drews knocked down a three ball with forty seconds left, which was followed by a lay-up by Kool eight seconds later, and the Broncos were down just one-point, 70-69, with 32 seconds left.
On the Cardinal in-bound, Drews applied stingy defense on BSU’s Jones, forcing him to lose the handle and dribble out of bounds, which gave the ball back to the Broncos. On the ensuing possession, Gary’s lay-up attempt was blocked by Maurice Hubbard with 12 seconds left, forcing the Broncos to foul to stop the clock. BSU guard Brandon Lampley missed the front end of the bonus and sank the second to give the Cardinals a two-point lead, 71-69, before Kool’s game tying shot.
The Broncos took a 14-point lead into halftime, 38-24, but were outscored 47-33 and out shot in the second half. In the second stint, Ball State shot 58 percent from the floor to get back into the game, compared to 46 percent by the Broncos.
WMU will close out the regular season at home on Sunday, March 8 against Central Michigan at 2 p.m. With a win over CMU, the Broncos would remain in the hunt for the MAC West title.
Courtesy: Zolton Cohen
