STOCKTON, Calif. – Western Illinois men's basketball concluded its season-opening, three-game road trip with a 66-52 loss at Pacific Sunday (Nov. 17).  Garret Covington and Adam Link finished with 16 and 15 points, respectively, in the loss, while Michael Ochereobia grabbed a game-high eight rebounds.

Pacific came out on fire early, connecting on its first nine shots from the field and jumping out to a 23-3 advantage over the Leathernecks.

Western would battle late and eventually get within 14 points, but the early deficit proved to be too much for the Leathernecks as they fell to 0-3 on the year, while Pacific improved to 3-0.

Covington and Link were the only Leathernecks to score in double figures. Ochereobia added eight points to go along with his eight rebounds for the second straight contest.

Mike Miklusak tallied a season-best five points in the loss, while Link, Covington and Tate Stensgaard each finished with four rebounds.

Remy Roberts-Burnett led the Leathernecks with four assists, while Jabari Sandifer added three.

Pacific was led by Tony Gill (19), Sama Kaku (16) and Andrew Bock (13) who each finished with more than 10 points in the game. Taku also led the Tigers with six rebounds.

After earning the opening tip, Pacific opened the game on an 11-0 run during the first four minutes of play before Covington knocked down WIU's first points of the game, a three-pointer.

The Tigers would answer WIU's triple with another big run, 12-0 this time, to make it 23-3 midway through the first.

Down 20 points, WIU's offense began to show some life with six Leathernecks scoring over the final 10 minutes of the period.

Pacific, however, didn't cool off much and the Tigers were able to outscore Western 21-20 throughout the remainder of the half and take a 44-23 lead into the break.

Pacific shot 58.1% (18-31) from the field, 60% (6-10) from three, and 100% (2-2) from the free throw line in the first, while Western shot just 38.1% (8-21) from the floor, 36.4% (4-11) from beyond the arc, and 75% (3-4) at the charity stripe.

The back-and-forth action that concluded the end of the first half continued into the second half. 

Western trailed by 22 points with 8:20 on left on the clock, but the Leathernecks continued to battle, eventually cutting their deficit down to 15 points, 61-46, at the final media timeout of the game (3:50).

The Leathernecks were able to trim off only one more point of Pacific's lead by games end as Pacific held on for the win.

For the second consecutive game Western shot under 40% from the field as the Leathernecks finished 37.2% (16-of-43) from the floor, while the Tigers finished the game 24-of-53 (45.3%).

Western also turned the ball over five more times than Pacific (17-12).

The Leathernecks return to Macomb and will look for their first victory of the season Thursday (Nov. 21) versus Eureka College. Tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. inside Western Hall.