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Tonight the Western Michigan Broncos head to Ohio to face the Bowling Green State Falcons in a 7pm Eastern tip-off. You'll be able to catch the game on ESPN Fullcourt and ESPN3/WatchESPN. The Falcons are coming off a 69-65 win at Northern Illinois while the Broncos last dropped a road game to Central on Saturday, 70-65. BGSU sits tied atop the MAC East (with Akron and Kent State) at 7-3 in the conference, while the Broncos are 5-5 in MAC play, good enough for third the in the MAC West.
Interestingly, both these teams have both lost to Akron twice - so perhaps they will match-up really well and it'll be a close game? I believe so. Bowling Green is a powerhouse in the MAC, but Western's offense has shown resiliency, albeit often patchy success this year. (Western is averaging 72 points per game to the Falcons' 65.) The Bronco offense, led by senior guard David Brown, is impressive when it hits all cylinders (those other cylinders generally being junior foward Connar Tava, senior guard Austin Richie, and sophomore forward Tucker Haymond).
Add to that the fact that starting center and freshman Drake LaMont just came off his best offensive game yet, with 17 points against CMU on Saturday. And the Broncos have before shown that they can recover quickly after a tough loss (e.g. the Kent State win after dropping a game in Ypsilanti).
Bowling Green will have quite a lot to say about a Bronco turn-around though. First of all, the team is only allowing about 59 points per game to opposing teams. This team has only lost games to other division leaders (Akron and Toledo), so they clearly are not prone to losing focus against teams below them in the standings.
Senior forward Richaun Holmes is leading the team with 14 points a game. But even if the Broncos are able to isolate and neutralize the threat of Holmes, the guard trio of sophomore Zach Denny and seniors Anthony Henderson and Jehvon Clarke is likely to step up and fill in offensive needs.
So tell me folks, who do you have winning this one?