For 40 minutes, Western Michigan continuously held Bowling Green at arm's length, and all BGSU could do was futilely flail their arms. Imagine Matt Stainbrook doing this to Jordon Crawford, and you have your visual.
The 67-56 final doesn't look like a total blowout, but consider: what's the need in winning a game by 25 points? If WMU really had to, they would've. But with potentially three games in three days, it's all about conservation and balance.
Nobody scored more than 14 points, but seven people had at least six. Only two people logged more than 30 minutes, not including Flenard Whitfield and Nate Hutcheson. Mike Douglas was out there for a while, but he's solidifying himself as the third man alongside Whitfield and Demetrius Ward that's making good things happen. While only getting seven points, he had six assists and — spit take — four blocks. He's a point guard, mind you.
Douglas has 33 assists in his last five games. In his previous three games he's scored at least 25 points twice. It seems that with every game he's controlling it in a different manner. With a game coming up against Akron, the Broncos need to correct the mistakes that led to a 12-point loss at the JAR, but this will help: the Zips are dead tired after that double-overtime match. The Broncos are not. Akron also played a game on Tuesday to get to Cleveland — WMU came straight here.
When I filled out my MAC bracket, I had WMU in there because, what the hell, why not. But now it's starting to make more sense. Then again, sense didn't exactly get us to this point. It's not going to save us, either.