MACOMB, Ill. - Western Illinois women's basketball begins postseason play against No. 4-seed South Dakota in the quarterfinals of the Summit League Tournament on Sunday (March 9) at noon inside Sioux Falls Arena in Sioux Falls, S.D.
The fifth-seeded Leathernecks (14-15, 6-8 Summit) closed out the regular season on a three-game skid, while the Coyotes (16-13, 7-7 Summit) won seven of their last 10 heading into the conference playoffs.
Sunday's game between WIU and USD will be aired live on Fox College Sports Central, as well as Midco Sports Network.
The winner of Sunday's game will advance to the Summit League Tournament semifinals to take on regular season champion South Dakota State, who received a first-round bye, on Monday (March 10) at noon.
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Summit League Tournament Central
LAST TIME OUT: In the regular season finale, Western Illinois fell 76-68 at second-place IUPUI... The Leathernecks closed the regular season with a 14-15 overall mark for the second straight season, falling to 6-8 in Summit League play. IUPUI, who had the second seed locked up prior to the game, improved to 21-8, 11-3 in conference action... Hot 3-point shooting again doomed WIU; IUPUI shot 72.7 percent (8-of-11) from long range just two days after IPFW hit 57 percent (12-of-21) in another Western loss... The Leathernecks were 30.8 percent (4-of-13) from beyond the arc... Western was led by Tori Niemann (14 points/five rebounds) and Ashley Luke (13 points, seven rebounds)... The Leathernecks jumped out to an early 18-13 advantage, but IUPUI scored 17 straight points to take a 30-18 lead it never relented... With the Jaguars leading 59-50 at the 9:10 mark, a Sophie Reichelt jumper and Liz Skotowski triple cut the margin to 59-55 with 8:07 to play... But IUPUI responded with an 8-0 spurt of its own to put three game away... Paige Harmon added 11 points and five rebounds for Western, while Michelle Maher pitched in nine points and four assists, and Rebecca Henricson totaled six points, six assists, three boards and three steals. SCOUTING THE COYOTES: South Dakota enters the Summit League Tournament with a 16-13 overall record, finishing 7-7 in Summit League play to earn the No. 4 seed... The Coyotes are led by First Team All-Summit League selection Nicole Seekamp, who is averaging 14.8 points per game, leading the team with an 87.6 free-throw percentage... South Dakota also features Second Team pick Polly Harrington, averaging 12.2 points and 5.6 rebounds per contest... Raeshel Contreras earned All-Newcomer Team honors by averaging 13.1 points per game... The Coyotes have won seven of their past 10 games, but most recently fell to South Dakota State by a 99-88 margin.SERIES HISTORY: South Dakota leads the all-time series, 5-1... The Coyotes won the first four games in the series before WIU handed USD its first home loss of the year, 81-71 (Jan. 23)... The Coyotes rebounded to beat the Leathernecks 79-76 in Macomb (Feb. 22)... In the first two games, Ashley Luke averaged 22 points and 8.5 rebounds, while Michelle Maher added 22 points and 5.5 boards per contest... After missing the first contest due to injury, Nicole Seekamp led South Dakota with 18 points in the second game... Tia Hemiller was nearing a triple-double, totaling 11 points, 10 boards and seven assists.THIS DATE IN HISTORY (March 9): Western Illinois is 1-0 on this date all-time... The Leathernecks' only March 9 game was a 73-60 victory over Youngstown State in the Mid-Continent Conference championship game in 1995, giving the Leathernecks their only NCAA Tournament appearance against North Carolina.SUMMIT LEAGUE TOURNAMENT -- BY THE NUMBERS: Western Illinois' situational records are as follows:• 11-19 in the Summit League Tournament• 8-11 in the Summit League Tournament quarterfinals• 0-0 against South Dakota in the Summit League Tournament• 0-2 as the No. 5 seed in the Summit League Tournament• 1-4 against No. 4 seeds in the Summit League Tournament• 2-5 at the Summit League Tournament in Sioux Falls, S.D.ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICA: Sophomore Ashley Luke was named to the Capital One Third Team Academic All-America Team (Feb. 22) by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) for her academic and athletic accomplishments this year... She became the program's first-ever Academic All-America selection... Out of the 15 honorees, she was the only sophomore and one of just two non-seniors; additionally, Luke was one of just two student-athletes recognized to maintain a perfect 4.0 GPA.ALL-CONFERENCE: Western Illinois women's basketball had three All-Summit League honorees for the first time in 10 years, and a First Team selection for the first time in eight years... Ashley Luke received First Team recognition, while Michelle Maher and Tori Niemann earned Honorable Mention nods... Niemann was also named to the All-Newcomer Team... Luke and Maher were two of just three sophomores to receive All-Conference recognition.LUKE-ING GOOD: After a freshman campaign in which she was named the Summit League 'Newcomer of the Year' and 'Second Team All-Summit League,' Ashley Luke has taken her game to the next level her sophomore year... She is one of just two NCAA Division I women's hoops student-athletes to average 20 points, 10 rebounds and two steals per game... She became the first Leatherneck to earn conference 'Player of the Week' honors four times in a season since Zane Teilane did so four times in 2005-06... This year, Luke has broken Western Illinois season records for points (currently 588 - prev. record was 504) and free throws made (currently 170 - prev. record was 127).PROTECTING THE ROCK: After finishing 15th in the nation with a 2.2 assist-to-turnover ratio last year, Rebecca Henricson has tallied 157 assists while committing just 52 turnovers so far in 2013-14, the ninth-best ratio in the nation... She has committed one turnover or less in 12 games this season, committing more than three turnovers just once... She has finished with more turnovers than assists only three times... As a team, Western Illinois has finished with more assists than turnovers in 16 games this season... The Leathernecks have the best assist-to-turnover ratio and second-best turnover margin in the Summit League.70 IS THE MAGIC NUMBER: In head coach JD Gravina's tenure, the Leathernecks are 30-12 when scoring at least 70 points, including 13-9 this season... When scoring 69-or-fewer points, Western is 10-38 over the same timespan, 1-6 this season.SPREAD THE WEALTH: All nine Leathernecks who have seen game action have had a game scoring at least seven points, while eight have had at least one game scoring 16 points or more... Six different Leathernecks have led the team in scoring on a given night... Individual Leathernecks have scored in double figures 101 times this year. WHAT DOES MAHER DO?: When Michelle Maher scores at least 13 points this season, the Leathernecks have an 11-5 record... When she puts up 12 points or less, WIU is 3-10... Compared to last year, she has improved her averages in assists (2.4 to 4.1), steals (1.0 to 1.8) and rebounding (3.4 to 3.9).MILESTONE WATCH: Rebecca Henricson scored her 500th career point at IUPUI, is one assist away from becoming the second Leatherneck to reach 400, and is 10 steals from becoming the sixth Leatherneck to reach the 200 plateau... Michelle Maher is seven points from 700 and 11 assists from 200 in her career... Ashley Luke notched her 900th career point and 300th season rebound at IUPUI, and grabbed career rebound number 500 at Fort Wayne; she's also seven steals away from 100... Tori Niemann is four points away from the 400 plateau... Paige Harmon scored her 200th point against South Dakota and Liz Skotowski hit a triple at IPFW for her 200th... Marley Hall (196) is nearing the 200-point plateau, and Sophie Reichelt (93) is closing in on 100 rebounds.SUMMIT'S ACTIVE CAREER LEADERS: Rebecca Henricson is the Summit League's active career leader in assists with 399, more than 100 ahead of the next-closest (IPFW's Amanda Hyde)... As just a sophomore, Ashley Luke already ranks first in rebounding (519) and third in scoring (905) in her career.HIGH ATTENDANCES: For the game against South Dakota State (Jan. 16), 1,085 fans packed Western hall, sixth-most in program history and the second-highest attendance of the past nine years... Two of the top six attendances in program history have occurred under coach JD Gravina in the last two years: Jan. 16 versus SDSU and March 2, 2013 versus Oakland (1,156 fans, second-most all-time)... Against Fort Wayne, 959 fans attended Western's Think Pink night, the 10th-largest crowd in program history... Western Illinois ranks third in the conference for home attendance at conference games, averaging 880 fans inside Western Hall.IN THE RPI: Western Illinois' official weekly NCAA RPI ratings are below (347 NCAA Division I programs): • Preseason: 248 • Week 1 (Jan. 6): 229 • Week 2 (Jan. 13): 213 • Week 3 (Jan. 20): 269 • Week 4 (Jan. 27): 270 • Week 5 (Feb. 3): 261 • Week 6 (Feb. 10): 262 • Week 7 (Feb. 17): 245 • Week 8 (Feb. 24): 250 • Week 9 (March 3): 251NANCY LIEBERMAN AWARD WATCH LIST: Senior Rebecca Henricson was one of 29 student-athletes in NCAA Division I to be named to the Nancy Lieberman Award watch list... The award recognizes the top point guard in the nation... Henricson was one of just nine mid-major players on the watch list.BEATING OTHER MID-MAJORS: In the nonconference portion of its schedule, Western Illinois defeated opponents from several different conferences, including the Atlantic-10, Conference USA, Horizon, Ohio Valley and the WAC... The Leathernecks' win over Saint Louis was the conference's only victory against an A-10 opponent... By defeating UAB, WIU also picked up the league's only win versus a C-USA team; the remainder of the league went 0-4.NONCONFERENCE SUCCESS: Western Illinois women's basketball posted eight nonconference wins for just the fourth time in program history... The achievement is also the first time Western has reached that mark since the 2005-06 season... That year, WIU went 23-7 and finished 13-3 in conference action.WESTERN SIGNS ONE FOR 2014-15: On the first day of the 2013-14 early signing period (Nov. 13), Emily Clemens signed a National Letter of Intent to join the Western Illinois women's basketball family for the 2014-15 season... Clemens, a 5-4 point guard from Muscatine H.S. (Iowa), is a two-time All-State honoree... She averaged 12.3 points, 4.7 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 2.8 steals her junior year after totaling 12.5 points, 7.0 assists, 3.7 steals and 2.9 rebounds per contest her sophomore season... She has also shot better than 41 percent from beyond the arc each of her past two seasons.WHAT IS A LEATHERNECK?: Western Illinois holds the distinction of being the only non-military institution to officially have its nickname derived from a branch of the military service. The school began use of the Marine Corps' official nickname, “The Fighting Leathernecks”, in 1927 when then-athletic director and head baseball, basketball and football coach Ray “Rock” Hanson was granted permission by the U.S. Navy, based on his status as a Marine hero, to use the Marine's official seal, bulldog mascot and nickname.
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