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Western Illinois University Athletics

Jalen Morgan FP
WIU Visual Productions Center
49
Silver Lake SLC 3-12
84
Winner Western Illinois WIU 6-1
Silver Lake SLC
3-12
49
Final
84
Western Illinois WIU
6-1
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Silver Lake SLC 26 23 49
Western Illinois WIU 41 43 84

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | | WIU Athletic Communications

Leathernecks Handle Silver Lake in 84-49 Victory Wednesday Evening

Jalen Morgan finished with a game-high 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field

COACH WRIGHT POSTGAME INTERVIEW | PHOTOS

MACOMB, Ill. – Jalen Morgan helped lead Western Illinois with an efficient season-high 17 points as the Fighting Leathernecks never trailed and handled the Silver Lake Lakers, 84-49, inside Western Hall Wednesday night (Dec. 2).
 
"Obviously I am pleased with the outcome. I thought we got better and we played better as the game progressed. It's not a trend or a habit that we want to continue, but you look at our roster and the one thing we talked about before the season was our depth. I thought that Jamie (Batish) and Jalen Morgan gave us a great lift off of the bench tonight," said head coach Billy Wright.
 
The Leathernecks, who bettered the Lakers in nearly every statistical category, took a 41-26 lead into halftime and then outscored the Lakers 43-23 in the second half on the way to their sixth victory of the season.
 
Besides Morgan, three other Leathernecks scored in double figures. Senior Jamie Batish and junior Garret Covington each tallied 14 points while junior Jabari Sandifer finished with 11. Senior Tate Stensgaard added seven points.
 
Those five Leathernecks combined to shoot 77.8 from the field making 21-of-27 shots. As a team WIU shot 50.9 percent from the field (28-of-55) and 50.0 from downtown (9-of-18).
 
Morgan, a red-shirt freshman from Indianapolis, shot 6-of-7 from the field and 5-of-7 from the free throw line to earn his 17 points. Like Morgan, Covington (3-of-4), Sandifer (4-of-5) and Stensgaard (3-of-4) only missed one shot each from the field, while Batish missed only two of his shots (5-of-7).
 
Sandifer led the team in assists with seven and did not turn the ball over in 25 minutes of action. Covington shared the team lead in rebounds with senior J.C. Fuller as each player grabbed six.
 
Western forced 19 Silver Lake turnovers and scored 27 points off of those turnovers, while the Lakers were only able to score four points off of 11 WIU turnovers.
 
The Leathernecks also dominated the paint and points on fast breaks, outscoring the Lakers 34-12 and 14-0 in those respective categories.
 
WIU hits the road for another nonconference matchup against Big Ten member Iowa next Monday, Nov. 7. Tipoff between the Leathernecks and Hawkeyes is slated for 7 p.m. and the contest is scheduled to air nationally on the Big Ten Network.
 
GAME NOTES: Official attendance was 1,037… Western's 6-1 start is only the third of its kind in the program's DI era… No team has started a season 7-1 during the DI era… Covington is 19 points away from becoming the 23rd member of Western's 1,000-point club… After tonight's game, Jalen Morgan is shooting a team-best 81.0 percent (17-of-21) from the field on the season.

 
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