On a night that Eastern Michigan University honored Earl Boykins with the retirement of his jersey and remembered the days of 20-win seasons and trips to the NCAA Tournament, the 2011 team seemed to be heading in the opposite direction, notching its 20th loss of the season Sunday.
“I was disappointed in our seniors,” EMU coach Charles Ramsey said. “You need someone out there who’s going to take control and show the way. That did not happen.”
Ramsey went on to apologize for his team’s “horrible effort.”
The Eastern Michigan University men’s basketball team faced an uphill climb all afternoon against Western Michigan University, falling 87-60 at home to Western Michigan.
Derek Thompson led the Eagles in scoring with 20 points, and Brandon Bowdry recorded his 38th career double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
The Broncos had five players in double digits. Flenard Whitfield’s 16 points led the way, and Matt Stainbrook followed right behind with 15 points and eight rebounds. Mike Douglas added 12 points and seven rebounds.
With the win, the Broncos advanced to 9-5 in Mid-American Conference play (17-11 overall), while the Eagles fell to 8-20 overall (4-10 MAC).
WMU struck first in the game, getting off to an early 5-0 lead before Bowdry snapped EMU’s offensive drought with a layup at the 17:31 mark. The Eagles would manage to cut the Broncos’ lead down to two, 9-7, but they never did get on top as the Broncos went on a 19-5 run that led to a 28-12 edge with 5:54 left in the opening half.
EMU connected on just 9-of-27 shots in the first half for 33.3 percent and went 22.2 percent on 2-for-9 shooting from behind the perimeter. The Eagles were also unable to knock down any free-throws as they went 0-for-3 from the free-throw line.
Meanwhile, the Broncos shot 58.1 percent from the field on 18-for-31 shooting and drained three of their seven three-point attempts for 42.9 percent behind the arch. They also connected on all of their five free-throws. All of this allowed the Broncos to walk into the locker room at the break with a 44-20 advantage over the Eagles.
“We couldn’t control their guards,” Ramsey said. “We weren’t making shots. Derek Thompson started making shots late but we needed them earlier.”
The Eagles opened the second half with a triple by Thompson, and over the next five minutes Adrian Burton and Darrell Lampley each added another. But that wasn’t enough to stop the Broncos from getting up to a 30-point lead, which quickly became 40 points.
“We were really dialed in during the second half,” Stainbrook said. “We didn’t want to allow any let downs.”
Despite outscoring the Broncos 27-14 in the final 9:18 of the game, the Eagles still trailed by 25, with 58 seconds to play.
“It was a game that we needed on many levels,” Broncos’ coach Steve Hawkins said. “The most obvious is that we needed it going into the MAC Tournament. We also like to win on the road and we had a bad taste left in our mouths after the last 20 seconds that we played against Toledo.”
At halftime, EMU honored one of its all-time greatest basketball players, Earl Boykins, with the retirement of his jersey. Boykins wore No. 11 with EMU from 1994-1998. During that time, EMU saw two NCAA Tournament appearances, including the upset of Duke in 1996.
Boykins is still the school’s leader in career assists, free throws made, and second all-time in points. Boykins joined the likes of Kennedy McIntosh, George “Ice Man” Gervin, Grant Long, and the first ever women’s player to have her number retired by EMU, Laurie Byrd.
Boykins also gave the Eagles a pre-game speech.
“He talked about winning, he talked about competing and doing the things you need to do in order to win,” Ramsey said. “It was a very nice one if you ask me.”
The Eagles will take on Northern Illinois University at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Dekalb, Ill., in EMU’s last regular season game.
