Skip To Main Content

Upcoming Events and Recent Results

Western Illinois University Athletics

Ryan Myers
65
SIUE SIUE 16-15,9-9 OVC
76
Winner Western Ill. WIU 20-11,13-5 OVC
SIUE SIUE
16-15,9-9 OVC
65
Final
76
Western Ill. WIU
20-11,13-5 OVC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
SIUE SIUE 34 31 65
Western Ill. WIU 40 36 76

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | | WIU ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS

Leathernecks Cap 20-win Regular Season with Victory over SIUE

Boudreau sets first-year coach wins record for men's program

MACOMB – It was a successful Senior Night and a strong way to close out the regular season for the Western Illinois men's basketball team as the Leathernecks wrapped OVC play with a 76-65 win over SIUE on Saturday.

Western Illinois now heads to the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament in Evansville, Indiana to play on Thursday against the winner of Southern Indiana-Tennessee State. The Leathernecks close out the regular season with 20 wins overall and 13 in conference play, the most for the program since the 2012-13 campaign. Western Illinois also clinched fourth in the OVC.

"This is big, it's a big accomplishment for us," WIU's Jesiah West said. "We had to learn how to finish games, I think tonight we learned to finish a game, we played a full 40 minutes, we still have a lot to clean up but we finished the game and that was big for us."

Chad Boudreau also set the record for most regular season wins by a WIU head coach in his first season, breaking a tie with Stix Morley, who won 19 in 1947.

"Third-most wins in Division I history," Boudreau said. "We talked at the beginning here, we had no culture, but we were building something, we had that momentum going but we lost a ton offensively from last year's team, but it started with Q (Quinlan Bennett), it started with Jesiah (West), those two guys staying and being committed to the program was huge.

"To build around that, the other guys, Braden (Lamar) was big, he is the eighth guy in a seven-man rotation, but he doesn't complain, that stuff is huge and those guys sticking together, the way we started and for us to finish with 20 wins is really a compliment to them and a compliment to the upperclassmen and the new guys we added. We changed throughout the year, we ran the same system, but we changed, we stuck with, we could have fallen apart playing those five buy road games, but we stuck to the plan, we got better."
 
In a season of tight contests, an 11-point win felt comfortable as a 20-9 run turned a two-point lead into a 13-point advantage with 4:04 to go. The Leathernecks led by six at halftime only to see the Cougars fight back into the game.

"We hit a lull, we weren't in system, when we get in system, you can see the ball moving from side to side, I think during that stretch, Q hit a big shot, Ryan (Myers) hit a big shot and Ryan stepped up and made some great plays tonight," Boudreau said. "We talked before the game, this is about the seniors, winning for them, so it was good for Ryan to step up and help that through.

"Early in the season, we'd have a stretch of eight or nine minutes, not it's two or three minutes and we get back on track. Our actions away are better and this is a good time for this to happen."

Myers was big all night, scoring a team-high 24 points while grabbing six rebounds. Jesiah West added 13 points and six rebounds. Quinlan Bennett added 13 points, five rebounds and five assists. JJ Kalakon chipped in with 11 points and eight boards. Drew Cisse finished his night with seven points, seven rebounds and four assists. James Dent Jr. added eight points off the bench.

As a team, WIU went 25-50 (50 percent) from the field, 8-17 (47.1 percent) from three and 18-31 (58.1 percent) from the line. SIUE finished 26-76 (34.2 percent) from the field, 5-24 (20.8 percent) from three and 8-12 (66.7 percent) from the line.
 
Print Friendly Version