Leathernecks suffer defeat to IUPUI

MACOMB, Ill. - Western Illinois' David Nurse's five-three point shots and 17 points weren't enough to overcome IUPUI as Western suffered a 70-42 defeat, Saturday, in Western Hall.

“When you're in a situation like this you can get really disappointed. When you've coached for 20 plus years you've had your share of games like this. I'm a little disappointed but I'm not going to get discouraged,” Western Illinois head coach Jim Molinari said. “I always tell our kids that it's all about having the right attitude and the right mindset. We have really good kids who always have the right attitude, but our mindset just wasn't there tonight. They were physical and we weren't.These young men have given us a ton, they're great young men but this is a lesson. I tell our team all the time, it's not that winners never fail, winners never quit.”

“We've had three really hard practices since our loss at IPFW and we felt that we needed to make a statement tonight, not to Western but to ourselves,” IUPUI head coach Ron Hunter said. “We felt like we had something to prove and we did that tonight, especially defensively. I told our kids if we're going to be a championship team we need to play like one. If you play defense the way we played today then we'll be in good shape for the conference tournament.”

The Fighting Leathernecks (9-14, 2-10) battled to stay with the Jaguars (17-8, 10-2) as they trailed from the opening minutes. Western was within four points until the 9:35 mark when the Jaguars pulled away to six and extended the deficit to a 14-point halftime lead, 34-20. IUPUI's Alex Young was 4-for-7 from the field to lead all players with 11 points at the half and also led all players off the boards with four rebounds.

Holding Western without a single point until the 14:27 mark, the Jaguars opened the second half on a 5-0 run capped with a Leroy Nobles three. IUPUI's 60 percent (12-of-20) shooting in the second half helped push the Jaguars out to as many as 36 with 6:18 left. Back-to-back Nurse threes closed out the game 70-42.

“I have to give them (IUPUI) credit. They're long, they're athletic and they're very good. They were ready to play and we weren't,” Molinari said. “I can't tell our guys enough that college basketball is tough, it's physical. If you hit them in the mouth, they're going to hit you back and our guys just need to learn from that.”

The Leathernecks shot 37.5 percent (15-of-40) from the field while the Jaguars registered 25-of-42 (59.5%) from the field. Nurse accounted for all five of Western's three pointers, while Young and Nobles slit the Jaguars' 50 percent (4-for-8) shooting from beyond the arc. Nurse was the only Leatherneck player in double figures as IUPUI put a halt to Ceola Clark's six-game double-digit scoring streak.

The Jaguars won the battle on the boards, 29-18, with Young and Robert Glenn each grabbing six rebounds. Clark led Western's rebounding with only four. IUPUI forced 16 Leatherneck turnovers, while three players had three steals each for 12 total Jaguar steals.

The Leathernecks travel to Oral Roberts, Feb. 11, for a 7 p.m. tip, before facing Centenary in Shreveport, La., Feb. 13, at 7:30 p.m.

Print Friendly Version

Players Mentioned

#5 David Nurse: G; 6' 3"; Senior; Kearney / Kansas City Kansas CC

Players Mentioned

#5 David Nurse
: 6' 3"; Senior; Kearney / Kansas City Kansas CC
: G

Upcoming Events and Recent Results

Players Mentioned

#5 David Nurse

Players Mentioned

#5 David Nurse