Brown’s make came as the result of an end-to-end rush by the senior guard on the Broncos’ final possession of the game. With the score tied at 66-all with 7.9 seconds remaining, San Diego’s Christopher Anderson missed two free throws and gave the ball back to WMU with plenty of time to run a play.
Coming out of a timeout, Brown rushed the ball down the court and made his way into the paint, fighting through incidental contact and tossing the ball into the hoop for the bucket. San Diego’s Johnny Dee sent up a prayer three-pointer off the inbounds play but it was well off the mark, securing the win for the Broncos.
A key defensive play came moments later, when Haymond successfully challenged Dee at the three-point line and forced an errant shot that was rebounded by Drake LaMont. Connar Tava got the call on the offensive end of the floor and made a hook shot from the paint to tie the game at 66-all with 21 seconds remaining.
Tava finished with a game-high 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting in 36 minutes of play. Brown finished with 14 points and a career-high seven assists while also notching three steals against the Toreros. Haymond had 10 points and a game-high eight rebounds.
The Broncos out-rebounded San Diego 36-29 and held the Toreros to a 41.8 field goal percentage, including a 9-of-27 performance in the second half that included a six-minute drought from the field to start the period.
The first half began with an early Bronco advantage as WMU scored the first four points of the contest to take the lead. Dee capped a 10-2 run for the Toreros at the 15:44 mark with a three-pointer from the left wing to give USD a 10-6 edge, and San Diego again held a four-point lead with 6:20 remaining in the half on a trey from Anderson.
Haymond responded with an old-fashioned three-point play on the next possession, making a difficult lay-up while drawing contact from Thomas Jacobs.Thomas Wilder tied the score a few minutes later with a free throw make.
The Toreros extended the lead to five points with 2:44 to play on a lay-up by Brett Bailey, but Taylor Perry took a feed from Brown and laid it in cut the deficit to three points. Tava sank two free throws to make it just a one-point game. Brown then scored with 42 seconds left in the half to keep it a one-point deficit (40-39) as teams headed for their locker rooms.
(Courtesy of WMU Athletics/MRO Edit)