MACOMB, Ill. -Â The Fighting Leathernecks continue their road swing this week at Oral Roberts on Thursday (Feb. 12) and at Omaha on Saturday (Feb. 14)... Western Illinois' game at ORU is slated to tip at 7 p.m. and will air on ESPN3... WIU and Omaha are scheduled to tipoff at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
UP NEXT: After their trip to Oklahoma to play at Oral Roberts this Thursday (Feb. 12), the Leathernecks head to Omaha on Saturday (Feb. 14) for a contest with the Mavericks... WIU then returns to Macomb for its final two home games of the season against South Dakota State (Feb. 18) and Denver (Feb. 21).
OBJECTS IN THE MIRROR: Sophomore guard Garret Covington has 732 career points which ranks tied for 55th all-time, 32 points away from 50th all-time... David Nurse ranks 50th with 764 points... Covington has 116 career three pointers at WIU which ranks 10th all-time... Matt Robins ranks 9th with 119 triples and J.D. Summers ranks 8th all-time with 121 three-pointers.
ESPN3: Western Illinois is slated to play two more games that will air live on ESPN3... The Leathernecks have already played on ESPN3 four times this season, at UIC (Nov. 17), at Cleveland State (Dec. 7), at Memphis (Dec. 23), and at South Dakota (Feb. 5)... The Leathernecks' next game scheduled to air on ESPN3 is Feb. 12 at Oral Roberts... Below is a list of WIU remaining games that are slated to air on ESPN3:
Date   Opponent   Result/Time
Feb. 12   at Oral Roberts   7 p.m.
Feb. 26Â Â Â at IUPUIÂ Â Â 6 p.m.
LEATHERNECKS VS. GOLDEN EAGLES SERIES HISTORY: Oral Roberts leads the all-time series 28-7... The first meeting between the two programs, and the only meeting that was a nonconference contest came during the 1968-69, a game Oral Roberts won 82-69... Prior to this year's loss to ORU at home on Jan. 10 by a score of 66-57, WIU had won the previous meeting between the two teams when the Leathernecks upset first-seed ORU in the semifinals of the 2012 Summit League Tournament, 54-53... The Golden Eagles have won 13 of the last 15 games.
HOME SWEET HOME: Western is 37-15 (.712) inside Western Hall since the beginning of the 2011-12 season... The Leathernecks went 10-4 during their 2011-12 campaign, 12-2 during the 2012-13 league slate, and 7-5 last season... So far this year WIU is 8-4 on LeRoy A. Ufkes Court inside Western Hall.
ROAD RAGE: With all of its success at home, Western has struggled on the road the last four seasons... WIU is 14-38 (.269) on the road since the beginning of the 2011-12 season... The Leathernecks went 6-10 in 2011-12, they were above .500 in 2012-13 with a 7-6 road mark, struggled last season with a 1-13 record on the road, and are 0-9 so far this year.
MORE COVINGTON FOR THREE: Sophomore guard Garret Covington had 70 three-pointers as a freshman, and has 46 so far as a sophomore... He has played in 50 career games, has only had six games without at least one three, meaning he has made at least one triple in 44 games... He has 32 games with multiple three pointers... He has 11 games with one trey, nine games with two triples, 10 games with three makes from long range, 10 games with four three pointers, two games with five connections from beyond the arc, and a career-high six three-pointers in one game.
DOUBLE FIGURES: Sophomore guard Garret Covington has 732 career points and averages 14.6 points per game during his career... He has 38 games with 10 or more points, 29 games having scored between 10-19 points, and nine games with 20-plus points... He finished the Leathernecks' win over Southeastern Louisiana (Nov. 22) with 29 points, a career-best... Those 29 points were the most by a member of the program since David Jackson scored 32 against Fort Wayne on Nov. 21, 2006.
SANDIFER'S ASSISTS: Sophomore guard Jabari Sandifer has 189 assists in his young career, and averages 3.7 per game during his career... As a freshman, he played in all 30 games and averaged 3.1 per game, and has played in all 21 games this season and averages 4.6 per game (97 total)... He has at least one assist in all but two of his 51 career games played... He has multiple assists in 46 of those games... Three-plus assists in 40 career games... 23 games with four-plus... 10 games with five-plus... Nine games with six-plus... Four games with seven or more... Three games with eight-plus, all of which have come this season... And a career-high 13 assists this season versus Greenville College (Nov. 29) while not turning the ball over in 29 minutes of play... His 13 helpers was two shy of WIU's single-game record.Â
TEAM LEADERS: Sophomore Garret Covington is the only Leatherneck to have started all 21 games for the Leathernecks... Covington also leads the team in points per game (14.8), minutes per game (32.3), field goals (92), three-pointers (46), free throws (80), free throw percentage (85.1) and steals (23)... Junior Tate Stensgaard leads the team in field goal percentage (56.1)... Senior Mohamed Conde leads the team in rebounds per game (6.1), offensive rebounds (47) and defensive rebounds (75)... Junior Jalen Chapman leads the team in blocks (12)... Junior Jamie Batish leads the team in three-point field goal percentage (43.4)... Sophomore Jabari Sandifer leads the team in assists per game (4.6).
WIU AND ITS OPPONENTS IN THE NCAA'S DAILY RPI: (as of Feb. 8): Western Illinois has an RPI of 305 in NCAA's Daily RPI... It's opponent's rankings are: 236. Pacific | 307. UIC | 279. Southeastern Louisiana | 77. William & Mary | 92. Akron | 126. Cleveland State | 259. Idaho | 218. Alabama State | 86. Memphis | 222. Fort Wayne | 314. Omaha | 113. South Dakota State | 177. Oral Roberts | 226. Denver | 151. North Dakota State | 243. South Dakota | 251. IUPUI. |
