WMU men crushed by Ohio University in MAC hoops quarterfinals

CLEVELAND, OH (WKZO AM/FM) – The season ended for the Western Michigan University men’s basketball team Thursday as they fell to Ohio University 82-55 in the quarterfinals of the Mid American Conference tournament in Cleveland.

Western Michigan ends its season at 12-20, while Ohio improves to 20-12 and advances to Friday night’s second semifinal, where it will face No. 2 seed Akron.

B. Artis White paced the Broncos with 12 points for the evening, while Owen Lobsinger joined him in double-figures with 11. In their final games for the Brown and Gold, Anthony Crump and Titus Wright tallied eight points apiece.

Wright’s start on Thursday was the 126th of his WMU career, tying him with Joe Reitz (2004-08) for the most in program history.

Lobsinger grabbed a team-high eight rebounds in the contest, with Crump and JaVaughn Hannah contributing six boards apiece. WMU tied its season high with seven blocks, as Crump, Lobsinger and Wright each registered a pair of rejections.

The Bobcats started out on the front foot in a low-scoring first half with the first eight points of the contest. Ohio’s lead briefly reached double-figures, but Western Michigan used a six-point spurt to get back to within five, 19-14, with just under six minutes to go until halftime. OU answered with the next five in a row and scored seven of the final 10 points of the period to take a 35-22 advantage into the locker room.

Ohio continued to slowly build on its lead in the second half, eventually extending the margin to 48-31 with 13 minutes to play. A Hannah jumper and White three-pointer pulled Western Michigan to within 12, 48-36, but the Bobcats countered with seven straight to make it 55-36 at the 10:43 mark.

With the margin at 59-39, White hit back-to-back triples to close the gap to 59-45 with eight minutes to go, but the Bobcats answered again, tallying the next 11 points to put the game beyond reach.

 

(reporting from WMU Athletics)