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Western Illinois University Athletics

Massner
Bradley Motton
72
South Dakota SD 9-12,4-5 Summit League
75
Winner Western Ill. WIU 13-8,6-4 Summit League
South Dakota SD
9-12,4-5 Summit League
72
Final
75
Western Ill. WIU
13-8,6-4 Summit League
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
South Dakota SD 35 37 72
Western Ill. WIU 39 36 75

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

Beating the buzzer

Massner three leads WIU past USD, 75-72

MACOMB – After a school-record 46-point performance last Monday, people were wondering what Trenton Massner would do for an encore and if there was anything he could do to top a record.

Welp, Massner found a way to upstage himself on Thursday night, beating the buzzer as the Leathernecks beat South Dakota, 75-72 on Massner's three-pointer with .9 remaining.
 
"I've always wanted a moment like that, I was telling one of my teammates before the season, that's one of those things I've never done, hit a buzzer-going-off-game-winner," Massner said. "I've hit some go-ahead shots but nothing like that."

With the game tied 72-72, Western Illinois had to play defense one last time to even give Massner one last shot at a regulation win. But a big defense stand followed by a Jesiah West rebound gave Western Illinois one last crack at a victory.
 
"I got a lot of trust in that dude, we've seen him make spectacular shots night after night," West said. "We were going up the floor together and I said 'What do you want to run?' and he said, 'It's game time.'

"It was like, alright, I have the trust in you. I told Vuk (Stevanic) to set the screen and put it in his hands and he made a spectacular shot."
 
The 30-footer was a relatively clean look for the senior, who used the double screen of Stevanic and West as decoys for his bucket.

"I knew coming up the floor, I was shooting a three no matter what, whether it was a step-back or not," Massner said. "I saw them come up, the guy guarding me was looking back for the screen to come up, so it was like, 'OK, I'm going to shoot it, it's a better look than I'll get coming off a screen.' "
 
The basket set off a wild celebration, which only got wilder after Western Illinois intercepted USD's inbound pass to end the game and improve WIU's record to 13-8 overall, 6-4 in league play and extended Western Illinois' win streak to four games.
 
"What I kind of want to remember, we got that stop, we got a couple stops and then the score," WIU coach Rob Jeter said. "We stopped Kamateros, we got two stops down the stretch. As a coach, you always see things, but the most important thing is, our guys stepped up with two defensive plays at the end and then let Trenton do what he can do. He's a special player and showed he can do it again tonight."
 
Western Illinois led by as many as 10 early in the game, but the Coyotes would hang around and eventually pull ahead. From there, the two teams would go back and forth, trading the lead 14 times and tying nine times.

A basket by Kamateros tied the game one last time at 72 with 1:56 to go, but the defenses would take over late as each team matched each other stop for stop.
 
"To me, it looked like an NBA game, we score, you score, then the last two minutes guys step up and start playing defense," Jeter said. "We had a couple stops, they had a couple key stops as well. We're lucky we had the last shot at it."
 
The Leathernecks had another balanced night as Massner's 23 points led the way. All five starters scored in double figures as Jesiah West, Alec Rosner and Quinlan Bennett all finished with 11 points and Stevanic added 10. But while the starters carried the scoring load, Elijah Farr came up big in the first half, scoring nine to get WIU clicking.  

"We need that stretch big, in some games coming in, he's shot faking, looking to do a little too much instead of simplifying," Jeter said. "Tonight, he did that, he had the right response to coaching. He caught it and shot it, he stepped into his threes, we need that type of production from him."
 
The victory also saw the Leathernecks improve to 9-2 inside Western Hall one the eve of closing out the four-game home stand against South Dakota State on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Jacks are currently in second in the Summit League, one spot ahead of the Leathernecks by .5 games.
 
"We have one more to get, that would be the cherry on top," Jeter said. "They've been one of the top teams, they've represented this league, they're the standard of the league, you've seen how they responded in the league. We're going to have our hands full, we have to make sure we have something left in the tank, if we can get a crowd here, we'll have plenty in the tank."
 
For the game, Western Illinois went 29-56 from the field, 11-26 from three and outrebounded USD 34-32. The Leathernecks held South Dakota to 29-62 shooting and 5-18 from three.
 
West led the way on the glass with a team-high eight rebounds while Bennett and Massner each added six apiece. Massner had six assists with West adding five. West also blocked three shots.
 
 
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