UP NEXT: After Western Illinois plays its final home game of the season against Denver Saturday night (Feb. 21), WIU hits the road for its final two regular season games of the year at IUPUI (Feb. 26) and Fort Wayne (Feb. 28).

LEATHERNECKS VS. PIONEERS SERIES HISTORY: Denver leads the all-time series 4-1... The Leathernecks won the first meeting between the two programs on January 30, 1978, by a score of 84-78... Denver has since won the last four meetings... DU won the second-ever meeting on December 7, 2002, by a score of 75-48... Denver swept the season series last year, winning the first Summit League meeting between the two teams on Jan. 25 in Macomb, 67-55, and then winning again in Denver on Feb. 20, 75-67... Below is a look at all of the meetings between the two teams:

vs. Denver • Western trails 4-1
Jan 30, 1978     W     84-78     A
Dec 7, 2002     L     48-75    N
Jan 25, 2014    L    55-67    H
Feb 20, 2014    L    67-75    A
Jan 14, 2015    L    54-68    A

THANK YOU SENIORS: Western Illinois will recognize its two seniors, Remy Roberts-Burnett and Mohamed Conde, prior to Saturday night's game... Roberts-Burnett, in his fourth season at WIU, is the lone Leatherneck left from the 2012-13 Summit League Championship team, and Conde has played in nearly every game while a Leatherneck during his two-year career.

COVINGTON'S CAREER NIGHT: Sophomore guard Garret Covington, who entered Wednesday's game against South Dakota State ranked in the 'Top 10' in career three-pointers and 'Top 50' in career points at WIU as a sophomore, finished the game with a career-high 31 points... The Edwardsville, Ill. native connected on 13-of-17 shots (76.5 percent) from the field and 5-of-7 (71.4 percent) from long range... He also dished out a team-high four assists, grabbed six rebounds, and recorded a team-best two steals in a season-high 39 minutes of play.

J.C. FULLER HOT STREAK: Western Illinois junior guard J.C. Fuller, one of The Summit League's top newcomers, started off league play slow only averaging 5.0 points and shooting just 30 percent (9-of-30) from the field through the first five league games... Since then, through the last eight league games, Fuller has shot 49.6 percent from the floor (58-of-117) and averaged a team-high 18.4 points.

BATISH FROM LONG RANGE: Junior guard Jamie Batish, who is shooting a team-best 44.7 percent from the three-point line this season, has made 16 of his last 26 attempts from long range (61.5 percent) through six games... His best stretch of shooting from beyond the arc came during a four-game stretch (Jan. 30 - Feb. 12) this season where he connected on 68.4 percent of his attempts, making 13-of-19. He is shooting 54.5 percent from three in league play which ranks near the top of the conference.

OBJECTS IN THE MIRROR: Sophomore guard Garret Covington has 786 career points which ranks 45th all-time, 57 points shy from sole possession of 40th all-time... Cory Fosdyck ranks 40th with 842 points... Covington has 125 career three pointers at WIU which ranks eighth all-time... Troy Okeson ranks seventh with 132 triples made during his career, and Mark Buckingham sits sixth all-time with 141 career three-pointers.

INJURY UPDATE: Western Illinois has lost two starters to potentially season-ending injuries during league play... Sophomore Mike Miklusak injured his knee versus Oral Roberts on Jan. 10 and junior forward Tate Stensgaard hurt his wrist against North Dakota State on Feb. 1... Before the 2014-15 season began WIU lost two of its incoming freshmen to year-long injuries or illness in Jalen Morgan and Kendall Rollins... Morgan injured his knee during a preseason practice while Rollins was forced to miss the entire year due to an undisclosed illness... Senior guard Remy Roberts-Burnett also missed significant time due to a head injury.

HOME SWEET HOME: Western is 37-16 (.698) 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 8-5 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 14-40 (.259) 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 0-11 so far this year.

MORE COVINGTON FOR THREE: Sophomore guard Garret Covington had 70 three-pointers as a freshman, and has 55 so far as a sophomore... He has played in 53 career games, has only had six games without at least one three pointer, meaning he has made at least one triple in 47 games... He has 34 games with multiple three pointers... He has 12 games with one trey, nine games with two triples, 11 games with three makes from long range, 10 games with four three pointers, three games with five connections from beyond the arc, and a career-high six three-pointers in one game... He made his six triples in WIU's win over Idaho earlier this season (Dec. 11).

DOUBLE FIGURES: Sophomore guard Garret Covington has 786 career points and averages 14.8 points per game during his career... He has 40 games with 10 or more points, 30 games having scored between 10-19 points, and 10 games with 20-plus points... He finished the Leathernecks' game versus South Dakota State at home (Feb. 18) with 31 points, a career-best... Those 31 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 203 assists in his young career, and averages 3.8 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 24 games this season and averages 4.6 per game (111 total)... He has at least one assist in all but two of his 54 career games played... He has multiple assists in 50 of those games... Three-plus assists in 42 career games... 25 games with four-plus... 11 games with five-plus... 10 games with six-plus... Five games with seven or more... Four 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. 

TEAM LEADERS: Sophomore Garret Covington is the only Leatherneck to have started all 24 games for the Leathernecks... Covington also leads the team in points per game (15.2), minutes per game (33.0), field goals (112), three-pointers (55), free throws (85), free throw percentage (83.3), steals (26) and defensive rebounds (90)... Senior Mohamed Conde leads the team in  field goal percentage (52.6), rebounds per game (6.2) and offensive rebounds (56)... Junior Jalen Chapman leads the team in blocks (15)... Junior Jamie Batish leads the team in three-point field goal percentage (44.7)... Sophomore Jabari Sandifer leads the team in assists per game (4.6).