MACOMB, Ill. -Â Western Illinois men's basketball (6-2) continues nonconference play at home against the Eastern Illinois Panthers (2-5) on Saturday (Dec. 12)... The contest is scheduled to air live nationally on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app... Fans can also listen to the action live online at WRMSFM.com.
UGLY SWEATER: Fans are encouraged to wear the ugliest sweater they can find to both the Western Illinois basketball doubleheader on Saturday... Prizes will be awarded to the ugliest sweaters in Western Hall.
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1,000 POINT CLUB: Garret Covington sits 23rd all-time in Western Illinois career scoring with 993 points... He is only seven points from becoming the 23rd player in WIU program history to join the 1,000 point club... The last player at Western to reach that milestone was Ceola Clark III who finished his career with 1,472 points.
SERIES HISTORY: The Leathernecks have not faced any other team as many times as the Panthers... Eastern leads the all-time series 77-76, but the Leathernecks have defeated the Panthers in the last four meetings between the two programs. including a road win eariler this season... Western defeated Eastern in the 2011-12 season, 64-48, at home... Then again during the 2012-13 season on the road, 57-45... During the 2013-14 season, 60-32, at home... Most recently on Nov. 21 of this year, 83-63... According to Western Illinois records, the first-ever regular season meeting between the two teams took place on February 10, 1928 when Eastern defeated Western, 38-25... The two teams have met five times in the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament when the Panthers were a member of the league... EIU leads that series 3-2... Four of those five meetings took place in the first round of the conference tournament, and the other game took place in the semifinals.
BEST START SINCE: Western Illinois' 6-2 start is only the third of its kind during the program's Division I era... There has never been a Western Illinois team that has kicked off a season 7-2 during the program's DI era... The last time a WIU team started 7-2 was the 1980-81 squad.
UNDEFEATED START: Speaking of hot starts, this year WIU began the season 5-0, matching the program's best start during its DI era... The only other team during the program's DI era to start a season 5-0 was the 1986-87 team... No WIU team had started better than 5-0 since the 1957-58 team which won its first 27 games played and earned the Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship.
MID-MAJOR TOP 25: For the fourth consecutive week, the Western Illinois men's basketball team has been ranked in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll. This week, WIU remains at 18th... Western started the year ranked #24 before jumping up to #17, which marked the program's best... A complete list of WIU's appearances in the poll this season is below:
Nov. 16 - #24
Nov. 23 - #17
Nov. 30 - #18
Dec. 7 - #18
NATIONAL STATISTICS AS A TEAM (Thru Dec. 10): Through the teams' first eight games, Western is shooting 48.6 percent from the 3-point line and ranks second nationally...Kansas took over the top spot this week from WIU and the Jayhawks are shooting 47.2 percent... Western also ranks in the 'Top 100' of 12 other national statistical categories... The Leathernecks rank: 27th in field goal percentage (49.0), 29th in field goal percentage defense (37.4), 41st in assist/turnover ratio (1.41), 41st in turnovers per game (11.0), 55th in fewest total turnovers (88), 60th in scoring margin (11.5), 64th in win/lose percentage (75.0), 67th in defensive rebounds per game (28.25), 70th in scoring defense (65.5), 76th in three-point field goals per game (8.3), 77th in assists per game (15.5) and 94th in free throw percentage (72.1).
NATIONAL STATISTICS AS AN INDIVIDUAL (Thru Dec. 10): Individually, Garret Covington ranks 19th in 3-point field goal percentage (50.0) and 38th in free throw percentage (88.9)... J.C. Fuller ranks 26th in free throw percentage (90.9)... Jabari Sandifer ranks 30th in assist/turnover ratio (3.5), 59th in assists per game (5.3), 67th in total assists (42), 96th in steals per game (1.88) and 99th in total steals (15).
MORE COVINGTON IN THE RECORD BOOK: Garret Covington has 993 career points which ranks 23rd in program history, 87 points away from sole possession of 20th and 220 points away from sole possession of 15th... Mel Lacy sits 20th with 1,079 points... Dan Braun ranks 15th with 1,212... Covington is also in WIU's career three-pointers 'Top 10' having made 154 career three-pointers which ranks sixth all-time at WIU… David Nurse ranks fifth all-time with 160 career three-pointers.
FULLER'S TURNAROUND: J.C. Fuller started off his Leatherneck career slow last season as a junior transfer, averaging 9.5 points per game and shooting just 34.9 percent (37-106) from the field, 18.5 percent (5-27) from the 3-point line and 77.5 percent (31-40) from the free throw line through his first 11 games... However, during his last 20 games dating back to last season, Fuller has averaged 16.4 points (327 total), 4.8 rebounds (95 total) and 2.4 assists (48 total) per game... During that same time frame he has made 48.0 percent (121-of-252) of his shots from the field, shot 44.3 (39-of-88) percent from the 3-point line, and 82.1 percent (46-of-56) from the free throw line.
THE LAST TIME OUT: Western Illinois was unable to overcome an early deficit Monday (Dec. 7) as the Iowa Hawkeyes handed WIU its second loss of the season, 90-56, inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena... Following the loss Western fell to 6-2 on the season while Iowa improved to 7-2 overall... Junior guard Garret Covington led the Leathernecks with 12 points... Senior forward Tate Stensgaard added 11 points for WIU.
HOME SWEET HOME: Western is 41-17 (.707) inside Western Hall since the beginning of the 2011-12 season... The Leathernecks went 10-4 (.714) during their 2011-12 campaign, 12-2 (.857) during the 2012-13 league slate, 7-5 in 2013-14 (.583), 8-6 (.571) in 2014-15, and are 4-0 (100.0) so far this season on LeRoy A. Ufkes Court inside Western Hall.
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