CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Senior
Josh Rivers sunk five shots from downtown to lead Western Illinois with 17 points, but it wasn't enough as Southeast Missouri State edged out the Leathernecks, 64-63, Sunday.
Rivers hit a three at 1:46 to tie the game, 62-62, as a pair of Calvin Williams free throw shots pushed the Redhawks (3-8) ahead with 1:29 remaining. With less than a minute remainging,
Quenton Kirby went 1-for-2 from the line to bring the Leathernecks (4-7) within one. Ceola Clark reached in for a steal and handed it off to Kirby, but Williams' fifth block of the night did not allow Western the basket with eight seconds left in regulation. Rivers made a final attempt to hit a three pointer at the buzzer, but the Redhawks' defense held the Leathernecks.
Rivers hit his second three-point jumper at 16:25 for Western's greatest lead of the game, 8-1. The Leathernecks held SEMO without a field goal until the 14:02 mark when Williams slammed down the first of back-to-back dunks. Williams kept the Redhawks in the game as he recorded the first seven points for SEMO. A Jaycen Herring jumper at 12:24 gave Southeast Missouri State its first lead, 9-8. A SEMO three pointer at 10:57 tied the game, 12-12, when Western took off to lead by six on three occasions over the next three minutes. The Redhawks pulled ahead until the final second of the half when Rodney Williams hit a field goal on an inbounding play to give the Leathernecks a 29-28 halftime lead.
Back-to-back jumpers out of the locker room gave Southeast Missouri State the lead, which they would extend to as many as seven points at 54-47 and again at 56-49.
David DuBois sparked a 7-0 run with two-straight jumpers followed by a Clark three-point shot to tie the game at 56-56 with 8:46 left. Williams was successful in a pair of shots from the line to push SEMO ahead. With 4:33 in the game, Rivers hit another three-point shot to give Western its only lead of the second half, 59-58.
Behind Rivers in double-digit scoring was
David Nurse, who had 12 points with a pair of threes, and DuBois, who had 11 points with seven rebounds. Clark led in rebounding with a career-best eight and also led in steals with three of Western's seven.
Arsenio Mims earned the first start of his career.
In addition to leading in blocks (5), Williams led three Redhawks in double digits with 25 points, while Kenard Moore and Herring had 13 and 11 respectively. The Redhawks' leading rebounder was LaMont Russell with six.
The Leathernecks out-rebounded the Redhawks, 34-29 and forced two more turnovers (12-10). Southeast Missouri State out-shot Western from the field shooting 52.5 percent (21-40), but Western took the edge in three-point shooting with 40.9 percent (9-22).
Western Illinois travels to Big Ten Iowa for a 7:05 p.m. tipoff in Iowa City, December 27. The game will be televised live on ESPNU.
Western Illinois head coach Jim Molinari postgame quotes:"Tonight was greatly disappointing. Our guys out-rebounded them, but it came down to shooting. With
James Granstra out (due to injury), we really had no match for Calvin Williams and he destroyed us. I give our guys a lot of credit though. They made threes and came down the stretch to tie the game up. This one really hurt."
On Arsenio Mims' first career start:"I thought Arsenio got us off to a good start. He is very vocal in practice, he has great respect and he does a nice job of talking to give us defensive awareness."
On Ceola Clark's rebounding:"Ceola is a very complete player. He does a good job and I can't say enough about him. He has a great feel and does what it takes with steals and deflections."
