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Lynrick Moxey FP
WIU Visual Productions Center
53
Crown College CROWN 0-2
91
Winner Western Illinois WIU 2-3
Crown College CROWN
0-2
53
Final
91
Western Illinois WIU
2-3
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Crown College CROWN 24 29 53
Western Illinois WIU 53 38 91

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

Leatherneck Men’s Basketball Tops Crown College at Home Wednesday, 91-53

Covington scored a season-high 26 and five Leathernecks scored in double figures

COACH WRIGHT POSTGAME RADIO INTERVIEW

MACOMB, Ill. – Western Illinois topped the Crown College Storm Wednesday (Nov. 23) afternoon inside Western Hall, 91-53, led by Garret Covington's season-high 26 points.
 
Crown (0-3) was able to hang around for the early portion of the game and held a three-point lead, 11-8, four minutes into the game. Western (2-3) then proceeded to outscore the Strom by 30 points (45-15) over the final 16 minutes of the opening half and WIU took a 53-24 advantage into the break.
 
The second half was all Leathernecks as well, which allowed WIU to rest some of their starters and key reserves for the remainder of the contest. 10 players registered 10 or more minutes and 13 players played for the Leathernecks.
 
"First off, it's obviously good to get in the win column. It's good to try to work on some things that we needed to improve on, such as our defensive rebounding," said head coach Billy Wright. "We took care of the ball. For the most part, I thought we got off to a little bit of a slow start, and you have to give Crown College a lot of credit. They were ready to play and we weren't ready to play. It just took us awhile to get our defensive pressure to where we could stabilize their penetration and their ability to shoot the three."
 
Besides his season-high and game-high 26 points, Covington also led Western with eight rebounds and dished out three assists. The Edwardsville, Ill. native was effective from the floor, shooting 9-of-14 (64.3%) from the field, 4-of-6 (66.7%) from three and 4-of-4 (100%) from the free throw line.
 
The other four Leathernecks to score in double figures were Dalan Acrum (13), James Claar (11), Brandon Gilbeck (10) and Jeremiah Usiosefe (10). Claar's 10 was a career-best for the sophomore, and freshman Usiosefe's 10 was a season-high.
 
Freshman C.J. Duff recorded a team-best seven assist to go along with his seven rebounds and four points. He also didn't turn the ball over in a team-high 27 minutes of play.
 
The Leathernecks shot better than from Crown in each category: field goal percentage (52.4 - 27.6), 3-point field goal percentage (50.0 - 29.2) and free throw percentage (86.4 - 63.6). Western bettered the Storm in every other statistical category as well.
 
Crown College was led by Austin VanDerHeyden who finished with 17 points as well as Timothy Wendel who tallied 13 points and grabbed a team-best nine rebounds.
 
The Leathernecks hit the road for their next two contests, kicking things off at Miami (Ohio) on Nov. 26 and wrapping up the trip at American on Nov. 29.
 
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