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Western Illinois University Athletics

Garret Covington FP
WIU Visual Productions Center
71
Oral Roberts ORU 4-13, 0-3 Summit
86
Winner Western Illinois WIU 6-9, 3-1 Summit
Oral Roberts ORU
4-13, 0-3 Summit
71
Final
86
Western Illinois WIU
6-9, 3-1 Summit
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Oral Roberts ORU 33 38 71
Western Illinois WIU 34 52 86

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

Men's Basketball Beats Oral Roberts, Improves to 3-1 in League Play

Garret Covington leads WIU with a career-best 34 points in the victory

PHOTOS

MACOMB, Ill. – Garret Covington scored a career-high 34 points as Western Illinois men's basketball cruised past Oral Roberts at home Saturday afternoon (Jan. 7) inside Western Hall.
 
The Leathernecks moved to 3-1 in league and 6-9 overall after the victory, while the Golden Eagles remain winless in the league at 0-3 and fall to 4-13 overall.
 
"I am really pleased with the way we were able to execute on both ends of the floor. We got off to a kind of slow start defensively with our rotation. We were late on the double-team and how to get our rotation down was not a game speed," said head coach Billy Wright. "But once we got under control in the second half I thought our guys did a great job attacking on both ends of the floor, making the plays we needed down the stretch, and most importantly getting the defensive stops."
 
Covington's 34 points came via effective shooting as the senior made 12-of-16 from the field and 6-of-8 from beyond the arc. He also tallied three assists and didn't turn the ball over in 38 minutes of play.
 
The Edwardsville, Ill. native has dished out 10 assists and committed zero turnovers in the last two games, and has made six triples in each of the last two contests.
 
"Garret is playing at a high level. He's being very, very efficient," continued Wright. "He's done a lot in the absence of Jabari (Sandifer) as he's had to learn two new offensive packages from the point guard position and still give us points along with assists."
 
For the second straight game Brandon Gilbeck recorded a double-double with 10 points and a career-high 13 rebounds. He also had two blocks.
 
Senior Mike Miklusak finished with 18 points, seven rebounds and three assists in 39 minutes, and Dalan Ancrum provided a boast off of the bench once again with 11 points and four rebounds in 25 minutes.
 
Sophomore guard Delo Bruster finished with a team-high seven assists and zero turnovers.
 
WIU opened the game by grabbing an early lead before Oral Roberts went on a 9-0 run. The Golden Eagles scoring burst gave them their first and largest lead of the game, 19-14, with just under 10 minutes remaining in the opening half.
 
The Leathernecks then slowly chipped away at ORU's lead and took a 34-33 lead into halftime.
 
The two teams would play back-and-forth basketball before Oral Roberts regained the lead at the under-12 minute media timeout in the second half, 53-52.
 
Western then went on a 12-2 run and out scored the Golden Eagles 34-18 on its way to Summit League win number three of the season.
 
For the second consecutive game Western committed less than 10 turnovers, finishing with only six to its 16 assists.
 
"That's two games in a row that we've met our goal of having 11 or fewer turnovers. We had 16 assists to six turnovers. Hats off to Delo (Bruster) who had seven assists and zero turnovers," said Wright.
 
Both teams shot better than 40 percent from the field with the Leathernecks bettering ORU, 49.2-42.2. The Leathernecks also connected on 48 percent (12-25) of their 3-point attempts compared to the Golden Eagles' 26.3 percent (5-19).
 
Western Illinois will look to continue its hot Summit League start on the road at Denver next Wednesday (Jan. 11) and then at Omaha next Saturday (Jan. 14).

   
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