ATHENS – There was no second-half comeback this time.

Western Michigan led nearly from start to finish to top Ohio for the second time this season, 73-63, on Wednesday night at The Convo.

After the Bobcats scored the opening basket, the Broncos went on a 10-0 run and never trailed again.

“I could just see the guys’ facial expressions and body language,” Ohio coach Jim Christian said. “The guys just didn’t play with the energy they needed to to even attempt to win this basketball game.”

David Brown led Western Michigan (17-8, 10-3 Mid-American Conference) with 23 points, Connar Tava had 18 points and Shayne Whittington posted a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Nick Kellogg scored 20 points and Maurice Ndour had 14 for Ohio (18-8, 8-5 MAC).

The Bobcats only got as close as five points in the first half after the Broncos’ early run, getting there on an Ndour dunk with 10:29 left, but the Broncos responded by pushing the lead to 31-18 over the next five minutes.

Ohio’s defense held Western Michigan scoreless the rest of the half and closed its deficit to 31-25. A Jon Smith layup made it 35-32 less than four minutes into the second half, but the Broncos went on a 10-0 run to take control again. The lead went to 14 on a Tava putback with 10:22 to go and reached 16 on a Whittington free throw at the 7:33 mark.

After that, the Bobcats got only as close as 72-63 on a Kellogg 3-pointer in the final minute.

Western Michigan had a great offensive second half for a second time this year against Ohio, shooting 65.2 percent after the break. They finished at 50 percent in the game and went 11 of 17 at the foul line. Ohio shot 48.3 percent but was just 6 of 9 on free throws.

The Bobcats had 17 turnovers to 14 for the Broncos and got outrebounded 34-28.

“We’ve got to regroup and get better and understand what we need to do to win,” Christian said. “We know, we’ve just got to get the right mindset back. For whatever reason, we didn’t have it today. We had it three days ago. We were in the same situation. We played more together; we played harder. We just didn’t do it today. Sometimes you can’t answer it, I don’t know."

Tava’s all-around game included 7-of-12 shooting, six rebounds, five assists and four steals.

Both T.J. Hall and Stevie Taylor played limited minutes because of injuries for the Bobcats. Smith came off the bench as a disciplinary measure.

Ohio plays at 6 p.m. Saturday at Akron.