Box Score I Box Score (.html) I Box Score (.pdf) I Photo Gallery I Video Highlights

INDIANAPOLIS - The typically plodding Western Illinois basketball team looked more part thoroughbred as the Leathernecks shot 65 percent in a 46-point second half in knocked off IUPUI, 69-54 inside the Jungle on Saturday (Jan. 25) night. Freshman Garret Covington led four WIU players in double-digits with 17 points and nine boards and Adam Link chipped in 16 points and seven caroms off the bench. 

Senior Ja'Rob McCallum led IUPUI with 18 points, five boards and three steals and Khufu Najee added 14 points on 7-of-9 shooting. 

The loss was the Jaguars' sixth straight to open Summit League play while Western (9-12, 3-3 Summit) won its fourth straight over IUPUI. 

IUPUI (5-18, 0-6) led virtually the entire first half before Western finally went in front on a Covington pull-up jumper with 53 seconds left before halftime. IUPUI knotted the score at 21 all on a Najee answer, but WIU took a 23-21 halftime lead on a Covington putback at the final horn. Strong defense put points at a premium in the first 20 minutes as the two sides combined for 16 turnovers and neither hit better than 39 percent from the floor. 

The second half was the complete opposite as both defenses struggled to get stops. Yet it was WIU that came up with enough defensive stands to get to the finish line after leading the entire second half. 

IUPUI closed within one at 27-26 when Najee stroked a jumper with 17:06 to play, but the Leathernecks responded with back-to-back buckets from Jabari Sandifer and Covington. What ultimately was the decisive blow was a quick 8-0 WIU run, capped by back-to-back Mike Miklusak treys that pushed a 46-40 lead into a 14-point advantage with just over nine minutes to play. 

IUPUI crept back within seven with 4:24 left when McCallum finished a tough three-point play in transition, but Covington answered again with a runner. Western finally closed the game on an 8-0 run, finishing with the largest margin of the evening. 

After hitting just 9-of-24 first half attempts, WIU missed just nine second half attempts and finished the game shooting 52 percent. Covington and Link teamed to hit 12-of-15 shots and Michael Ochereobia was 5-of-9 and closed with 13 points. Miklusak added 10 points and three assists from the wing. 

Senior center Mitch Patton was the third IUPUI player to finish in double-digits with 10 points and five rebounds. Classmate Donovan Gibbs was held scoreless on 0-of-7 shooting, but led the Jags with seven boards in 29 minutes. 

McCallum continued to impress with Ian Chiles sidelined due to injury, scoring 18 points per game in the two contests while playing 38.0 minutes per game. Najee is averaging 17 points in the two ballgames since Chiles was hurt. 

Collectively, IUPUI shot just 44.4 percent overall and was 4-of-15 (26.7 percent) from three-point range. The Jaguars came in ranked 12th nationally in free throw percentage, but hit just 2-of-8 attempts on Thursday. Meanwhile, WIU ranked among the league's worst at the line, but connected on 13-of-15 attempts (86.7 percent). 

Western Illinois did the bulk of its damage in close, winning the glass 35-23 and outscoring IUPUI 36-24 in the paint. The same two teams will meet again in Macomb, Ill., on Mar. 1 in both teams' regular season finale. 

The Jaguars will conclude the two-game homestand on Saturday (Feb. 1) when they host Omaha in a 2 p.m. game to be televised on HTSN and ESPN3. Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and Bob Lovell (analyst) will call the game from courtside, while Will Flemming (pxp) will be on the radio call that day on WNDE 1260 AM and the free iHeartRadio app.