- Western Illinois opened up Summit League play on the road, defeating league-favorite Fort Wayne, 93-91, on Dec. 29 after making a program record 18 3-pointers, and falling at IUPUI 89-71 in Indy.
- Western's 93 points at Fort Wayne was the most against a DI opponent since Nov. 21, 2006 when they lost to Fort Wayne in five overtimes... The Leathernecks last time scoring 93 or more in a win was at home against Chicago State on Feb. 9, 2002 in regulation.
- WIU's 18 triples at Fort Wayne topped the previous record of 15 which happened twice before... First at home against Cardinal Stritch (1990-91) and then again at home versus Southern Utah (2001-02)... Freshman C.J. Duff made seven of the team's 18 3-pointers, two shy of tying the program's record.
- Mike Miklusak is having a great senior season so far, averaging 16.4 points (2nd on team) and a team-high 9.1 rebounds per game... He also has four double-doubles on the season and scored a career-high 23 points in WIU's last outing at IUPUI.
- Garret Covington, who leads the team with 19.8 points per game, has 1,596 career points and most recently moved from fourth to third place all-time at WIU in career scoring... Covington is the program's NCAA DI era scoring leader.
- In WIU's win at Fort Wayne, Covington also passed Ceola Clark to rank first all-time in 3-pointers at Western during the DI era (249).

LEATHERNECKS VS. JACKRABBITS SERIES HISTORY: South Dakota State leads the 23-game series 20-3, with SDSU having won 19-of-20 and the last 17 consecutive meetings... WIU is 3-7 at home versus SDSU, 0-9 on the road versus the Jackrabbits, and 0-4 in neutral site contests (0-3 in league tournament games)... Prior to the Jackrabbits joining The Summit League, the two teams faced each other twice, first on December 31, 1948, when WIU won at home, 64-41, and then again on February 29, 1980, when SDSU won 98-86 on a neutral court... Western won the next meeting in Macomb on Jan. 10, 2008, the two teams' first-ever league contest, 75-52... WIU's only other league win over the Jackrabbits came on February 7, 2009, when the Leathernecks defeated SDSU 62-59 at home.

A LOOK AT THE SDSU JACKRABBITS: The South Dakota State Jackrabbits enter Wednesday's game with a 8-9 overall record and are 1-1 in Summit League play... SDSU opened league play with a loss to North Dakota State at home, 80-69, before defeating South Dakota in Brookings, 73-72... The Jacks are led by Mike Daum who averages 22.5 points per game... Two other SDSU players are averaging more than 10 points per game in Reed Tellinghuisen (11.4) and A.J. Hess (10.0)... Daum also leads SDSU in rebounds per game (8.1), while Tellinghuisen averages the most assists per game on the team (2.2)... Tevin King averages 1.3 steals per game, a team-best, and Tellinghuisen averages 0.5 blocks per game... SDSU is coached by T.J. Otzelberger (Arizona '11) who is in his first year at the helm and has a 8-9 record while a head coach.

WHAT'S NEXT?: After Western continues Summit League play at home against South Dakota State (Jan. 4) and Oral Roberts (Jan. 7), the Leathernecks return to the road for games at Denver (Jan. 11) and at Omaha (Jan. 14)... WIU then returns home and plays host to the North Dakota State Bison on Jan. 21.

THE LAST TIME OUT: Western Illinois jumped out to an early double-digit lead but IUPUI was able to battle back and eventually defeat the Leathernecks, 89-71, last Saturday afternoon (Dec. 31) in Summit League play. After the loss, WIU sits 1-1 in Summit League action and 4-9 overall. The Jaguars of IUPUI are 1-0 in league contests and 7-8 overall. Senior Mike Miklusak led Western with a career-high 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field and 5-of-8 from beyond the arc. His five triples tied his career best. The Dyer, Ind. native also led the team with five assists and grabbed five rebounds. Fellow Senior Garret Covington also scored more than 20 points, tallying 22. Jalen Morgan was the only other Leatherneck to score in double figures finishing with 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Sophomore point guard Delo Bruster added eight points and four assists, while freshman Jeremiah Usiosefe pulled down a team-best six rebounds. "I thought, overall, our kids came out ready to play. That was something I was not concerned about, but we had a watchful eye over with a great emotional win Thursday night and a quick turnaround to Saturday afternoon. We got off to a great start at 16-5 and just couldn't sustain it. I thought their pressure really disrupted our offensive flow and rhythm, and they got a lot of second chance points and points in the paint, and that's just off of dribble penetration," said head coach Billy Wright. "To our kids' credit, they competed all weekend. This is a tough league. The Summit League is a great league with a lot of great coaches and a lot of great players. Anytime you can walk away with a split, we'll take that. Now it's time to go back home and protect our home court."

TOP ALL-TIME: Garret Covington sits third all-time in Western Illinois career scoring with 1,596 points... He most recently passed Dwayne Banks (1,555) and Bob Anderson (1,577) to move into third place all-time... Covington's 1,596 career points is the program's most during WIU's NCAA Division I era.

1.     2,248 Joe Dykstra    1978-83
2.     2,128 Coleman Carrodine    1960-64
3.    1,596 Garret Covington    2013-Pres.
4.     1,577 Bob Anderson    1966-69
5.     1,555 Dwayne Banks    1977-81
6.     1,524 Marshall Stoner    1952-56 
7.    1,508 Brad Bainter    1975-79
8.    1,496 Chuck Schramm    1954-57
9.    1,472 Ceola Clark III    2008-13
10.    1,448 Grady McCollum.................... 1956-60
    1,448 Jamie Lilly.............................. 1979-82