MACOMB, Ill. -Â Western Illinois men's basketball (8-13, 1-9) continues Summit League play on the road Thursday (Feb. 11) at Denver (13-11, 5-6)... The game is slated to tipoff at 8 p.m. CT.
UP NEXT: After the Leathernecks play three consecutive games on the road, at Denver (Feb. 11), at Oral Roberts (Feb. 13) and at North Dakota State (Feb. 17) to conclude the road portion of their schedule, Western plays three consecutive home games to finish the regular season against South Dakota State (Feb. 20), Fort Wayne (Feb. 25), and South Dakota (Feb. 27)... The top eight teams then journey to Sioux Falls, S.D. for the 2016 Summit League Tournament.
CHASE FOR THE LEAGUE TOURNAMENT: Western Illinois is only two games out of seventh place in The Summit League standings after ending its streak of losses as South Dakota and Oral Roberts each have only three league wins... Based on the last 10 years of the Summit League standings, the average number of wins for the eighth seed in the tournament is 4.4... The most wins by an eighth seed heading into the tournament over that time was seven during the 2010-11 season, and the next highest was six which happened twice (08-09 & 09-10)... The lowest win total came during the 2013-14 season when there was only eight teams in the league... The total was one... The next lowest eighth seed win total was three, which happened during both the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons.
COVINGTON'S THIRD YEAR AS A LEATHERNECK: Over the last three seasons, one constant for the WIU men's basketball team has been Garret Covington as the team's leader in points and 3-point field goals, and he has shot effectively from the free throw line... His scoring average has increased every year so far: freshman - 14.6, sophomore - 15.5 and junior - 17.3... During his freshman season he made 70 triples (38.7 percent of his attempts) and shot 80.0 percent from free throw line (92-115)... As a sophomore he made 63 shots from long range (made 35.6 percent of his attempts) and shot 82.8 percent from the charity stripe (101-122)... With six regular season games remaining in his junior season, he has made 56 threes (40.9 percent of his attempts) and is shooting 85.7 percent from the free throw line (66-77).
LEATHERNECKS VS. PIONEERS SERIES HISTORY: Denver leads the all-time series 6-1... 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 six meetings... DU won the second-ever meeting on December 7, 2002, by a score of 75-48... The rest of the five meetings have come in Summit League action... Below is a look at all of the meetings between the two teams:
vs. Denver • 7 Total Meetings • Denver leads 6-1
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
Feb 21, 2015 • L • 46-59 • H
Jan 14, 2016 • L • 69-76 • H
INSIDE WESTERN HALL: Western is 43-21 (.672) inside Western Hall since the beginning of the 2011-12 season... The Leathernecks went 10-4 (.714) during their 2011-12 campaign, 12-2 (.857) during the 2012-13 league slate, 7-5 in 2013-14 (.583), 8-6 (.571) in 2014-15, and are 6-4 (.600) so far this season on LeRoy A. Ufkes Court inside Western Hall.
ROAD RAGE: Western is 2-9 so far this season on the road... WIU is 16-51 (.239) on the road since the beginning of the 2011-12 season, and 3-34 (.081) in the last two seasons... The Leathernecks went 6-10 (.375) in 2011-12, they were above .500 in 2012-13 with a 7-6 (.538) road mark, struggled again during the 2013-14 season with a 1-13 (.071) record on the road, and went 0-13 (.000) in 2014-15.
THE LAST TIME OUT: The Omaha Mavericks jumped out to an early advantage last Wednesday inside Western Hall, but the Fighting Leathernecks battled back and grabbed their first Summit League victory of the season, 83-76... Junior Mike Miklusak picked up his first career double-double, scoring 14 points and grabbing a career-high 11 rebounds in 20 minutes of action... He also swiped two steals and shot 6-of-9 from the field.
TOP ALL-TIME: Garret Covington sits 14th all-time in Western Illinois career scoring with 1,220 points... He is 129 points away from sole possession of 12th... Garret Vicks ranks 12th with 1,348... In Western's home game versus Eastern Illinois (Dec. 12) he became the program's 23rd player to join the 1,000 point club... Before Covington, the last person to join the club was Ceola Clark III.
COVINGTON FOR THREE: Garret Covington has 189 career three-pointers which ranks third all-time at WIU… Bill Heisler ranks second all-time with 216 career three-pointers and Ceola Clark ranks first with 247... Covington is 27 away from sole possession of second place and 59 away from first... Covington had 70 three-pointers as a freshman, 63 as a sophomore and has 56 so far as a junior... He has played in 78 career games, and has had only seven games without making a 3-pointer, meaning he has made at least one triple in 70 games... He has 50 games with multiple 3-pointers... 20 games with one trey, 14 games with two triples, 15 games with three makes from long range, 14 games with four 3-pointers, six games with five connections from beyond the arc, and a career-high six 3-pointers in one game... He made his six triples consecutively in WIU's win over Idaho last season (Dec. 11, 2014).
SANDIFER IN TOP 10: Jabari Sandifer, who finished the 2014-15 Summit League slate ranked first out of all players in assists per game (3.8), has 315 assists in his career which ranks 5th all-time in WIU program history... He currently averages 4.0 assists per game and has played in 79 career games... As a freshman, he played in all 30 games and averaged a team-best 3.1 per game (92 total)… As a sophomore, he played in all 28 games and averaged 4.3 per game (119 total)... This season, as a junior, he has played in all of the teams' 21 games and is averaging 5.0 assists per contest (104 total).
MORE ON SANDIFER'S ASSISTS: Sandifer has at least one assist in all but two of his 79 career games played... He has multiple assists in 72 of those games... Two assists in 12 games... Three assists in 22 games... Four assists in 15 games... Two games with five assists... 10 games with six assists... Four games with seven assists... Five games with eight assists... One game with nine assists... He logged a career-high 13 assists last year 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.
 |
