Eastern Michigan Athletics
Eastern Michigan University
8-6 (0-1MAC)
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Western Michigan
9-5 (1-0MAC)
Men's Basketball Drops MAC Opener at Western Michigan, 61-47
1/9/2010 6:58:22 PM | Men's Basketball
Senior Carlos Medlock turned in a 16 point effort in 29 minutes of action
Box score.
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) – The Eastern Michigan University men's basketball team fell in an early 20-point hole and could never recover, as Western Michigan University picked up a 61-47 victory in the Mid-American Conference opener Saturday, Jan. 9, here at University Arena. The Eagles sliced the deficit to seven early in the second half, but the Broncos used another 15-4 run midway through the period to put the contest out of reach.
With the loss the Eagles drop to 8-6 overall and 0-1 in league action, while the Broncos go to 1-0 in the MAC and 9-6 on the season. Eastern's struggles in the city of Kalamazoo continue, as the Green and White have now dropped 10 straight on WMU's home court dating back to the 2000-01 campaign.
Senior Carlos Medlock (Detroit, Mich.-Murray Wright) led the Eagles with 16 points with junior Jay Higgins (Fayetteville, N.C.-MG Academy-Hillsborough (Fla.) C.C.) adding eight. Redshirt junior forward Brandon Bowdry (St. Louis, Mo. -Taylor (Mich.) Truman), who came in to the afternoon leading the MAC in rebounding and was second in scoring, was limited to just seven points and six rebounds.
David Kool paced the Western Michigan attack with 19 points, including a 9-of-10 effort from the charity stripe.
The Eagles made 14-of-55 shots from the field for a 26.4 percent clip. Western shot 34.5 percent from the field, hitting 19-of-55 attempts.
After a dreadful start to the contest, Eastern opened the second half with six straight points to cut the deficit to seven, 31-24, and force WMU Head Coach Steve Hawkins to burn a timeout with 17:11 to go. Medlock opened the scoring with a three-pointer that was followed up by a free throw by Matt Balkema (Warren, Mich.-Cousino) and a steal and fast-break layup by Quintin Dailey (Las Vegas, Nev. -Bishop Gorman-Sheridan (Wyo.) J.C.).
EMU's defense was rounding into form, holding Western Michigan without a field goal for the first six minutes of the stanza. However, the Broncos were still able to up the margin to 12, 36-24, with five makes at the charity stripe.
After back-to-back scores by Bowdry and the momentum clearly in EMU's favor, Martelle McLemore drilled a long-range triple with 13:40 showing on the clock to end WMU's field goal drought and send the lead back to double digits, 39-29.
The scoring slowed dramatically for Eastern Michigan, with the Eagles managing just four points over the next six minutes stretch. Thankfully Western Michigan found putting the ball in the hoop just as troublesome, as the edge grew slightly to 48-33.
Having weathered the storm, Eastern cut the margin to 11 points on a Bowdry jumper with 2:52 to play. However, the two-time defending West Division champions once again answered to keep the advantage in double figures en route to the 61-47 decision.
The Broncos came out of the gate on fire, jumping out to a 10-2 advantage before a Medlock layup at the 14:47 ended the Eagles' scoring drought. The momentum continued in favor of Western Michigan, as the deficit ballooned to 18 points, 22-4, via a Kool jumper at the 7:45 mark.
After trailing by as many as 20, Eastern Michigan began to chip away thanks to seven consecutive points from Medlock to send the Eagles into the lockerroom at the half down 31-18.
For the period, EMU shot just 17.9 percent (5-of-28) compared to 44.8 percent (13-of-29) for WMU. Eastern was able to stay in the contest due en part to 6-of-7 shooting from the charity stripe, despite Western holding a 23 to 17 advantage on the glass. Medlock had 11 points for the Green and White, while Kool has 10 for his homestanding Broncos.
Eastern Michigan returns home Wednesday, Jan. 13, against the University of Toledo. The game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. with WEMU (89.1 FM) providing action on the radio and Eagle All-Access video steaming the game over the Internet.
