MACOMB, Ill. - After trailing 25-23 at the break, the men's basketball squad (4-3) outscored Eastern Illinois (6-3) 41-23 in the second half on their way to a 64-48 triumph in front of 1,624 fans Saturday evening in Western Hall.
Saturday night's attendance was the largest at Western Hall since the 2009-10 season when 1,778 attended Western vs. UMKC in Macomb on February 20th, 2010.
"When you have a home court advantage like that it's good for the players," said head coach Jim Molinari. "And finally we played Western basketball. Here's what we have to do; we have to play great defense, we have to rebound, we have to have low turnovers, and take good shots and that's what we did."
Western shot better than Eastern from the field (46.0-38.1), from behind the arch (46.7-29.4), and from the charity stripe (84.6-73.3) in Saturday evening's contest. The Leathernecks also committed just five turnovers all game, while Eastern finished with 15.
The team's five turnover performance was the best since last season when the Leathernecks turned the ball over just four times against Culver Stockton at home on December 9th.
Junior forward Terell Parks led Western with a game-high 19 points and a game-high nine rebounds, while senior guard Ceola Clark III tallied 18 points, all of which came in the second half, to pace the Leathernecks. Freshman forward Obi Emegano added 14 points and a game-high two steals.
Clark finished the evening 6-of-7 from behind the arch. His only miss came in the first half, and his six consecutive makes ties a Western Illinois single-game record.
Eastern was led by guard Jeremy Granger who tallied 18 points on the evening.
After Eastern opened the game's scoring with a triple courtesy of L. C. Doss, the Leathernecks put together a 6-0 run to take the three-point lead early on.
Fresh off the bench, freshman guard Remy Roberts-Burnett used an ankle-breaker to drop his defender to the floor and drive in for the easy layup, followed up by a nicely defended runner on Western's next possession, giving Western to a 10-6 lead with 12:30 left in the first.
The Leathernecks continued to build onto their lead, this time to six points after senior guard Tommie Tyler connected on a jumper in just inside the free throw line, making it 16-10.
However, Eastern Illinois was able to answer, outscoring the Leathernecks 15-7 in the remaining eight minutes of the first, and took a 25-23 lead into the break. Neither team was very effective shooting in the first with Eastern shooting 40.9 percent from the floor, and Western shooting 40.7 percent from the floor.
Western opened the second half with a 10-0 run, giving them the 33-25 lead after five minutes of play. The run was highlighted by Clark's first three of the game to open the half, and an and-1 layup courtesy of Parks.
After the Leathernecks absorbed a 5-0 from the Panthers, Clark connected on four triples in a span of three minutes, extending Western's lead to 10 points, 45-35, with just over nine minutes remaining in regulation.
Junior forward Jack Houpt connected on his first and only three of the game that sparked the crowd with 4:28 left in the game to give Western a 55-40 advantage.
Parks and Clark added exclamation points to the evening's contest with less than three minutes left in the game. Parks finished a two-handed slam over two Eastern defenders, and Clark hit his sixth triple of the game to make it 60-43 in favor of the Leathernecks.
Each team scored four points in the final two minutes as the Leathernecks cruised to a 64-48 victory.
Western (4-3, 1-1) will make the trip across Illinois to Chicago next Monday, December 19th, to face the Illinois Chicago Flames at 7:30 p.m.
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