MACOMB, Ill. -Â The Fighting Leathernecks conclude the regular season this week with a pair of games in Indiana... Western Illinois begins the week at IUPUI on Thursday evening (Feb. 26) when they face the Jaguars on ESPN3... WIU then heads to Fort Wayne to face the Mastodons on Saturday night (Feb. 28)... Both contests are slated for a 6 p.m. CT start.
UP NEXT: After Western hits the road for its final two regular season games of the year at IUPUI (Feb. 26) and Fort Wayne (Feb. 28), the Leathernecks head to The Summit League tournament... The opening round of the 2015 Summit League Championships will be played March 7-8, the semifinals will take place on March 9, and the championship game is slated for March 10.
LEATHERNECKS VS. JAGUARS SERIES HISTORY: IUPUI leads the all-time series 29-13... Prior to the Leathernecks winning the previous six meetings over the last four seasons, IUPUI had won 26-of-27 from 2000 to 2011... Through the first nine meetings between the two programs, Western captured seven victories... Below is a look at the last 20 meetings between the two teams.
THANK YOU SENIORS: Western Illinois recognized its two seniors, Remy Roberts-Burnett and Mohamed Conde, prior to last 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 last 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 nine league games, Fuller has shot 49.2 percent from the floor (61-of-124) and averaged a team-high 17.4 points.
BATISH FROM LONG RANGE: Junior guard Jamie Batish, who is shooting a team-best 43.4 percent from the three-point line this season, has made 17 of his last 31 attempts from long range (54.8 percent) through seven 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 51.7 percent (31-of-60) from three in league play which ranks near the top of the conference.
OBJECTS IN THE MIRROR: Sophomore guard Garret Covington has 795 career points which ranks 44th all-time, 48 points shy from sole possession of 40th all-time... Cory Fosdyck ranks 40th with 842 points... Covington has also jumped into WIU's 'Top 10' in career three pointers this season... He has 126 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 37-17 (.685) 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 8-6 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 has 126 career three-pointers in his career... He had 70 three-pointers as a freshman, and has 56 so far as a sophomore... He has played in 54 career games, has only had six games without at least one three pointer, meaning he has made at least one triple in 48 games... He has 34 games with multiple three pointers... He has 13 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 795 career points and averages 14.7 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 205 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 25 games this season and averages 4.5 per game (113 total)... He has at least one assist in all but two of his 55 career games played... He has multiple assists in 51 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.Â
TEAM LEADERS: Sophomore Garret Covington is the only Leatherneck to have started all 25 games for the Leathernecks... Covington also leads the team in points per game (14.9), minutes per game (33.1), field goals (116), three-pointers (56), free throws (85), free throw percentage (83.3), steals (26) and defensive rebounds (100)... Senior Mohamed Conde leads the team in field goal percentage (52.4), rebounds per game (6.2) and offensive rebounds (58)... Junior Jalen Chapman leads the team in blocks (16)... Junior Jamie Batish leads the team in three-point field goal percentage (43.4)... Sophomore Jabari Sandifer leads the team in assists per game (4.5). |
