YPSILANTI — Ebony Cleary got the news of her milestone approximately two seconds before taking the phone on a noisy bus headed home from Ypsilanti.
"I didn't know I was close," she said, laughing.
The Western Michigan University junior was just 11 boards from reaching 500 career rebounds, and she got exactly that Wednesday night in the Broncos’ 65-52 Mid-American Conference loss to Eastern Michigan (19-7, 9-5 MAC).
WMU women’s basketball coach Tasha McDowell said she too, was unaware the milestone was creeping up, but that it was a bright spot in an otherwise disappointing fourth straight loss.
The Broncos turned the ball over 26 times and trailed 26-17 at halftime to an EMU squad that got 29 points off the bench.
“I just felt like offensively we didn’t execute,” McDowell said. “I think that we kind of shot ourselves in the foot. ... Anytime you turn the ball over 26 times, it’s not gonna come out good.”
Defensively, WMU held the Eagles to a 21.2 scoring percentage in the first half, but in the second half allowed them to shoot 60 percent.
Cleary scored 12 points to earn a double-double, and teammates Miame Giden and Taylor Manley each chipped in 10 for WMU (7-20, 2-12 MAC).
Sydney Huntley, one of 10 scorers, led Eastern with 11 points.
“We didn’t quit,” McDowell said. “We did not quit one time. ... We get back out there tomorrow, try to fix the things that didn’t work well for us today, and we move forward.”