ESPN+. Western beat us in Oxford 83-74 back in January ( and we lost 3 key players to injury) and got off to a 5-1 MAC start, but have since returned to the bottom feeder team they were in the preseason and last year. They just got blown out at rival CMU Saturday, their 6th straight loss. None the less, it is hard to win a league game on the road and it always takes a really strong effort to do so. Failure to win puts Western in a tie with us and they would own the tiebreaker. The Broncos are 8-17 ( 5-7) and 4-6 at home. Miami is 12-13 ( 6-6) and 4-9 on the road. Broncos head coach Duane Stephens is in his second season after 19 years as an assistant to Isso at Michigan State and two of his assistants are two personable guys who were assistants for Jack Owens at Miami, Jeff Rutter and Cowan Olinger.
These guys have been their main players so far this year:
RS JR B. Artis White 9.2 and 35 threes
6-8 SR Titus Wright 6/4.6
6-4 SOPH Seth Hubbard 14.6 and 56 threes
6-9 JR Owen Lobsinger 9.3/6.3
6-4 SOPH JaVaughn Hannah 8.5
6-4 SOPH Jefferson De La Cruz Monegro
Road games in the Winter when you have to get back on the bus and drive back to Oxford and then get up a couple of hours later and go to class are always tough, especially so for a young team not used to that kind of a grind. We need to be ready and to expect a tough fight to the end.
27-12 Time Out Miami. Broncos are bombing in threes. Steele got a T on on a shooting foul which they ruled on the floor. More of a frustration T because we are getting our butts kicked.
29-to 14 Western at the 8 and under TO. Saturday Dean and Elmer were hitting everything, neither one has hit a thing so far tonight. Western is 6 for 11 on threes, we are 1 for 8. Showing no real fight so far.
35 to 20 Western at the 4 and under TO. Ryan Mabrey has not scored in I think 5 games since returning from an injury. Frankly, he does not look like a D-1 guard out there during this time period. Hunter is still the only guy who seems to be playing well.
Always weird to post this so early in a game. This team has consistently shown they fight and claw until the end. They got more aggressive on offense, stopped chasing on defense, and they’ve cut it to 8 with a 10-0 run.
38-33 at the half! Nice execution on and end of the half possession and Bultman drilled a 3. Our defense got tougher late. Western had an in and out 70 footer at the buzzer.
Finished on a 16-3 run. Team really doesn’t quit. Props to them. That half could’ve gotten away when they were down 18. Instead they started chipping away at the hole they dug. Only down 5 and start with the ball. Need to keep the defensive intensity up. Ball started moving a lot faster on the offensive side too.
We started doing some good team rebounding and are only down 20-18 at the half. WM is ahead because they are 9 for 17 on threes and we are 4 for 13. Cooper, Elmer, Mabrey, and Dean are 0 for 9 on FGA on the game.
