VIDEO | Highlights

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Bobby Word scored a career-high 25 points and Cleveland State shot 59-percent from the field to run past Western Michigan, 85-62, on Wednesday night at Quicken Loans Arena.

CSU improved to 3-5 this year, while the Broncos fell to 2-6.

STAT LEADERS

• Word scored his career-high 25 points, hitting 9-of-12 from the field and 5-of-8 from three-point. His old career-high was 22 points in his final game at Oral Roberts in 2015.
• Demonte Flannigan finished with 20 points and six rebounds. It was his second straight 20-point game and the sixth of his career.
• Rob Edwards tallied 15 points and five rebounds, while Kasheem Thomas recorded seven points, five rebounds and four assists.
• Terrell Hales posted five rebounds, five assists and three steals, while Evan Clayborne finished with four points and a pair of blocked shots.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• WMU jumped out to an 18-9 lead just over six minutes in as the Broncos hit seven of their first 10 shots from the floor.
• The Vikings answered with a 14-5 run to knot the contest at 23-23 with 8:42 on the clock on a three-point play from Rob Edwards.
• An Edwards three-pointer gave CSU its first lead of the game (28-27) with five minutes to play in the half.
• CSU's lead was still one point (30-29) with just over one minute to play in the half, but a 7-2 run to close the half gave the Vikings a 37-31 lead at halftime.
• CSU made nine of its first 10 shots in the second half to open up a 20-point lead (57-37) eight minutes in on a Flannigan dunk.
• The lead would reach as many as 25 points as the Vikings shot 66-percent (19-29) from the floor in the second half.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

• CSU shot a season high .586 (34-58) from the field, including .655 (19-29) in the second half when the Vikings outscored WMU, 48-31.
• The Vikings held a 32-25 advantage on the boards.
• CSU committed a season-low nine turnovers and turned 16 WMU turnovers into 25 points.
• The Vikings out-scored WMU, 15-0, in transition.

QUOTEABLE

• "We were finally able to put 40 minutes togther. Our focus at halftime was to come out and shut them down defensively and we did that, holding them to 36-percent in the second half." - Head coach Gary Waters

UP NEXT

• The Vikings travel to Purdue for a 12:00 pm game on Saturday (Dec. 10). The Boilermakers are ranked 18th in this week's AP Top-25 poll and 19th in the USA Today Coaches poll.
• Following a week off for final exams, the Vikings will travel to Ohio for a 2:00 pm contest on Saturday (Dec. 17).