Today the Western Michigan men’s basketball team takes on the Ohio Bobcats in Athens, Ohio. This will be the Broncos first MAC crossover game against a MAC East team. WMU is coming off a 64-61 victory last Saturday against arch-rival Central Michigan and enters the game with a 9-10 record and 3-2 in the MAC. Ohio is 15-4 and 3-2 in the MAC. The Bobcats are favored to win by 10.5 points. Here are a few notes before the two teams tip off tonight at 7pm.
* This will be the 121st meeting in the all-time series, with the Bobcats holding the 62-59 advantage in the rivalry. The Broncos are 18-43 in road games played against Ohio and are 4-6 against the Bobcats under head coach Steve Hawkins, and have never won in Athens under Hawkins. WMU won last year’s meeting 85-83 in Kalamazoo.
*The Broncos are 1-7 on the road during the 2011-2012 season.
* Nate Hutcheson was named the MAC West Player of the Week by the writers of the blog, theMACDaily.com.
* Against Central Michigan, Mike Douglas passed Brian Snider for second on the WMU career assists list; with 407 career assists, he needs 20 more assists to reach Billy Stanback’s program record of 427.
* Demetrius Ward and Matt Stainbrook are the only players to have started every game for the Broncos this season.
* D.J. Cooper leads the Bobcats in scoring with 14.2 points per game. Cooper also leads the MAC in steals with 2.6 per game.
* The Broncos rank 28th in the nation in rebounds per game with 38.8.
*Matt Stainbrook leads the MAC in shooting percentage at 58.3%.
*Hayden Hoerdemann is 2nd in the MAC in 3 point shooting, making 53% of his attempts from downtown. Ohio leads the MAC in 3 point defense.
*The Bobcats have the highest home attendance in the MAC, averaging 5796 per game.
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