CLEVELAND – Playing against Western Michigan is always a challenge.
The opponent has to match their physical intensity, win the hustle plays, the loose balls, the
second-chance points and stop the Broncos in transition.
Bowling Green was not able to do that for the majority of the quarterfinal matchup in the Mid-American
Conference tournament Thursday afternoon.
The Broncos got ahead early and then held off the Falcons the rest of the way to secure a 67-56 victory.
WMU, now 20-11, advances to face the Akron-Miami winner. The Falcons finish 14-19.
“You hope to bring your ‘A’ game. You have to play well as a team. You have got to give yourselves the
best chance to win,” BG head coach Louis Orr said. “At the end of the day, you have to play better as a
team against a good team like Western, you have got to play well at both ends of the court.
“Offensively we kind of played in stretches, but we weren’t consistent,” Orr continued. “On the defensive
end, they got off to an early start in transition off turnovers. We were fighting an uphill battle. We
just couldn’t get enough stops.”
The Broncos were 5-of-10 on 3-pointers and scored 11 points off eight Falcon turnovers in the first half.
BG also battled foul trouble with A’uston Calhoun and Danny McElroy in the first half.
“I think it hurt us a lot, not having him in the game, not having his presence,” McElroy said about
Calhoun getting three fouls in the first half. “Not having him (drawing) double-teams, opening up other
guys, kind of put pressure on other guys.”
“For us to play well, we need everybody playing well,” Orr said. “We need A’uston in the game. We need
our guys as a unit to play well.”
Even with the slow start, the Falcons were within 20-17 after a Calhoun 3-pointer, BG’s only three of the
game, with 8:35 remaining in the first half.
Then the Broncos went on a 10-0 run over the next four minutes. The Falcons missed five shots, including
three 3-pointers, and a turnover during the WMU run.
“In transition they killed us with the open three,” BG’s Dee Brown said. “We were trying to fight back
and unfortunately we couldn’t get enough stops to do that.”
BG did get some stops after the WMU run and trailed 33-26 at the half.
In the second half BG was within eight, 38-30, with 17:31 left in the game. Western gradually expanded
its lead to 16 points over the next seven minutes.
“We need to come out in the second half, the first five minutes well, and we didn’t take advantage of
that,” Orr said.
McElroy helped lead the Falcons back. BG was within nine four times in the final 1:26, but could get no
closer. McElroy scored 11 points in the final 3:20 of the game.
“In the last five minutes of the game, probably played some of the best basketball he’s played all year
as far as being aggressive and determined,” Orr said about McElroy.
“All I was trying to do was get the win,” McElroy said.
Western was 9-of-10 from the free-throw line in the final 1:35 of the game.
“We just didn’t play well enough to get the job done,” Orr said.
Brown led the Falcons with a game-high 17 points; McElroy scored 15, and Calhoun finished with 10.
“The last four or five games of the year … He started showing some leadership,” Orr said about Brown.
NOTES: It was the final game for BG seniors Joe Jakubowski, a native of Rossford, and Mike Dabney …
Western finished with 15 points off 13 BG turnovers and 10 points off 12 offensive rebounds … WMU’s
Flenard Whitfield had 12 points and 10 rebounds … The Broncos’ point-guard Mike Douglas, had six
assists, four blocks and two steals.
