Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Savannah State Brings in the New Year at Western Illinois

MACOMB, Illinois  --  The Fighting Leathernecks have won seven straight games and look to continue their winning ways with a pair of home games this week. Western (10-3, 4-0) concludes a home-and-home series with the Savannah State Tigers (5-7) on Wednesday (Jan. 2), and then plays host to the IUPUI Jaguars (6-11, 1-3) on Saturday (Jan. 5). Both games will be played at 7 p.m. inside Western Hall.

A LOOK AT THE TIGERS: Savannah State is a member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and enters Wednesday’s game with a 5-7 record...The Tigers most recently lost their fourth straight game to Marshall, 64-48...SSU is led by Rashad Hassan who averages 12.8 points and 5.1 rebounds per game... Preston Blackman sits second on the team with 9.9 points per game, and leads the team with 41 assists on the season.

COACHING SAVANNAH STATE: The Tigers are coached by Horace Broadnax (Georgetown ‘86) who is in his seventh season at the helm.

THE SERIES: Western owns a 2-3 record versus Savannah State all-time...All of Western’s games versus Savannah State occurred while Leatherneck head coach Jim Molinari was at the helm...The first came on November 24, 2009 when the Leathernecks lost, 52-48...Western beat the Tigers later that season at home on January 4th, 55-51...The two teams again played a home-and-home series the following season with Western downing the Tigers, 83-47, on the road before dropping a home game to SSU on March 1st, 51-47...Earlier this season Western lost in Georgia, 39-38.

MID-MAJOR TOP 25: Western Illinois just missed the CollegeInsider.com’s Mid-Major Top 25 poll, receiving 73 votes...The 25th ranked team in the poll earned 86 votes.

UNDEFEATED DECEMBER: The Leathernecks finished the month of December with a 6-0 record...It was the first time Western has went unbeaten in the December in its Division I history, and the first time since the Leathernecks went 8-0 in December during the 1957-58 season.

BEST START SINCE: Western is off to its best start in its NCAA Division I history...No other team has started a season 10-3 or better since the 1980-81 season (WIU’s final season as a NCAA Division II team)...The last time a Western Illinois team started 11-3 was the 1979-80 season.

STREAKING: The Leathernecks picked up their seventh straight victory last Saturday evening against Fort Wayne, a winning streak that started over a month ago on November 29th at South Dakota...The last time the Leathernecks earned seven or more straight wins was during the 1998-99 season when they earned seven straight wins...In the 1997-98 season, Western won nine straight games.

UNDEFEATED CONFERENCE RECORD: The last time the Leathernecks started conference play 4-0 or better was the 1997-98 team which kicked-off conference play 6-0...The 1997-98 team’s 6-0 conference start is Western’s best start in league play The 1997-98 team’s 6-0 conference start is Western’s best start in league play since it became a division I program.

WHAT’S IN A WESTERN WIN?: A win would mark the 1,213th victory in program history...A win would mark head coach Jim Molinari’s 58th victory at Western, and his 281st victory all-time as a head coach...A win would be Western’s third over Savannah State and even the series at 3-3...A win would mark the Leathernecks’ eighth straight.

IN THE NATION (As of 12/31/12): Western ranks in the top 10 of two national categories...Fourth in defensive scoring, having held its opponents to 52.2 points per game, and fifth in personal fouls per game, having committed only 13.1 per game...The Leathernecks also rank in the top 100 of six other categories... 36th in field goal percentage defense (38.3), 40th in field goal percentage (46.8), 52nd in winning percentage (76.9), 59th in turnovers per game (12.2), 61st in blocked shots per game (4.8), 85th in scoring margin (8.4), and 85th in three-point feild goal percentage defense (30.7).

CLARK AND PARKS NATION (As of 12/31/12): Seniors Ceola Clark III and Terell Parks rank in the top 100 of six national categories...Parks ranks 27th in blocked shots per game (2.54), 47th in rebounds per game (9.1), 72nd in field goal percentage (53.2), and 84th in double doubles (3.0)...Clark ranks 42nd in assist/turnover ratio (1.92).

LAST TIME OUT: The Western Illinois men’s basketball team accomplished something the program hasn’t seen in its 32-year NCAA Division I history, starting a season with a 10-3 overall record.

The Leathernecks (10-3, 4-0) picked up their seventh straight victory Saturday evening (Dec. 29) inside Western Hall with a 62-50 conference win over the Fort Wayne Mastodons (6-9, 0-2). The last time Western had won seven consecutive games was the 1998-99 season.

Jack Houpt and Adam Link led Western with 16 points a piece, while Ceola Clark III scored 14. Terell Parks pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds in the win and two blocks to go along with his seven points.

Clark also had a team-high six assists and one steal.

The Leathernecks shot 48.7% from the floor, and held the Mastodons to 31.6% shooting.

Fort Wayne won the turnover battle, committing just five to Western’s 15. It also had 11 steals to Western’s two.

IPFW hit only 4-of-21 from three, and the Mastodons also struggled from the free throw line, knocking down only 10-of-23 from the charity stripe.

IPFW took the lead, 8-6, early in the first half, but the Leathernecks went on a 12-2 run to close out the opening 10 minutes of the contest with a 18-10 lead.

With eight minutes left in the first, Clark had nine points on 3-of-4 shooting, the Leathernecks were shooting just under 70%, and IPFW had connected on only three of its 13 shots (23.1%).

The Leathernecks were up by as many as 14 points in the first, and went into the locker room at halftime with a 12-point advantage, 31-19.

The second half started much like the first half finished, with the Leathernecks building their lead to as large as 17 points. IPFW, however, battled back and made it a six-point game with just just over 10 minutes to play in regulation.

Western wouldn’t allow the Mastodons to get any closer, and after holding off a small Fort Wayne run, the Leathernecks would roll to victory.




WHO: Savannah State Tigers (5-7) at Western Illinois Leathernecks (10-3, 4-0)
WHERE: Macomb, Ill. • Western Hall (5,139)
WHEN: Wednesday, Jan. 2 at 7 p.m.
SERIES HISTORY: Savannah State leads 3-2

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Live Stats:GoLeathernecks.com
 Twitter: @WIUAthletics

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