SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Another come-from-behind victory courtsey of tenacious defense and character helped Western Illinois advance past the first round of The Summit League Tournament and into Monday's semifinals with a 54-53 win over South Dakota Saturday evening (March 9).
"Give credit to South Dakota, every game we played them it went down to the wire," said head coach Jim Molinari. "They are tremendous competitors, tremendously coached. We were fortunate tonight some of the open shots they normally hit, bounced out. Thank the lord for blessing us, we have a bunch of great guys. I think our team has character and like a lot of the teams here we have won a lot of games like this because we have not given in. We played to our identity. I thought we played to our second half defense was the difference."
Western improves to 22-7 overall this season, while South Dakota is eliminated from the conference tournament and falls to 10-20 overall.
The Leathernecks are now 3-1 in the past two seasons in tournament play, and will face the winner of the game between No. 3 North Dakota State and No. 6 Kansas City Monday evening.
Ceola Clark III was again the senior leader Leatherneck fans have grown accustom to, finishing the tournament game with 21 points, the only Leathernecks to score more than 10 in the win. Clark went 9-of-15 from the floor and knocked down three triples. He also had three assists and three steals.
Clark talked about his team and their confidence in him.
"I think the team has a lot of confidence in me to put the ball in my hands and make the right decision," said Clark. "I was fortunate to knock down a few shots. My teammates did a good job of getting me open and coaches did a good job of calling plays for me and I was able to knock down shots and give the team some momentum."
Adam Link had nine points for Western and Michael Ochereobia had a team-best nine rebounds and three blocks.
South Dakota was led by Juevol Myles and Trevor Gruis who had 14 and 12 points, respectively.
Similar to the pair of regular season meetings between the Leathernecks and Coyotes, the entire first half was a battle. There were seven ties and four lead changes, and the largest lead of the period was South Dakota's four-point halftime advantage.
USD won the tip and scored the game's first two points. Western quickly tied things up, and Clark connected on his first triple of the game shortly after, giving the Leathernecks their biggest lead of the first, 5-2.
Both teams struggled shooting from the floor in the first, with South Dakota shooting 36% (9-of-25) and Western shooting just 32% (8-of-25).
The second half didn't start the way Western wanted it to either, and the Leathernecks found themselves down six points with less than nine minutes to play in the game.
Over the next five minutes, however, Western Illinois went on a 13-2 run to move ahead by five points, 46-41. The run was highlighted by nine points from Clark and four from Link.
Western and USD would battle till the end, and even though the Leathernecks found themselves up six with 19 seconds left, South Dakota then knocked down a pair of free throws, and hit a three with 1 second left, leaving Western's lead at one point.
Time would then expire, and the Leathernecks had earned their third league tournament victory in the past two seasons.
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