And that's how you start the season. The Western Illinois men's basketball team claimed a heart-stopping, come-from-behind victory on Monday night at Illinois State, topping the Redbirds 71-68 in Normal.
The Leathernecks trailed by as many as 13 early in the second half, but a 16-2 run brought the team back into the game, and from there, it was a nail-biter to the finish with Western rallying one last time to get the season-opening victory.
"There's so many things that I can point to, obviously the team stepped up when we got a little undisciplined on some things," WIU coach Rob Jeter said. "But we learned lessons as the game was played, multiple people stepped up."
It was a little bit of everything from everyone as neither team led by more than four points in the final six minutes, one second of action.
"The subs late, Steph Gabriel comes in and causes a travel, that's huge, Vuk Stevanic (10 points) comes in and gets us great points around the basket, obviously Alec Rosner hits the dagger three, Trenton Massner plays the whole game and the defense Quinlan Bennett and Jesiah West played was huge," Jeter said. "Everybody contributed to the game and that's fun to see, especially when we battled adversity."
A back-and-forth first half saw Illinois State take a seven-point lead at the break, 40-33, on a made three at the buzzer. The Redbirds were able to expand the lead to 13, 46-33 at the 18:42 mark before the Leathernecks made their charge.
"I think we kept our poise when the momentum was not on our side," Jeter said. "During that stretch, we were able to get stops, that's what we're trying to get this team to understand, offensively, we're going to have some droughts but the defense can help us. We did a phenomenal job during that stretch to limit them to two points"
Massner helped lead the way, recording the first triple-double for the program since Brandon Gilbeck turned in the feat in 2018. The guard finished with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists while grimacing with an injury.
"That's incredible, a triple-double is rare," Jeter said. "We're going to have to reward him, let him wear a headband, that deserves that.
"We ask a lot of him and he stepped up. I'm proud of how we responded to get off the deck."
After ISU took a 63-59 lead, the Leathernecks responded as Massner hit a three, followed by a Bennett (10 points, five rebounds) steal and score to put Western up 64-63 with 4:55 to go. The teams would battle, trading the lead before Rosner (team-high 25 points) put Western Illinois ahead for good, 70-68 with a three-pointer with :30 to go.
Making his WIU, and Division I debut, Rosner played inspired basketball for the Leathernecks after the passing of his grandfather.
"I want to say condolences to the Rosner family, Alec's grandfather passed away I think yesterday, it was tough for him today," Jeter said. "It was good to see the team rally to support him. That last three was probably for his grandfather, to see him do that, bring a smile to his face was special because we know he now has other business to take care of with his family back home."
While the Leathernecks are flying high, there is not much rest for the team. Western Illinois returns to the court, hosting Rockford University on Wednesday night. WIU then hits the road for a pair of games, visiting DePaul on Friday and Central Florida on Monday.
"We have to get better each game, for these 40 minutes we got tougher, now we go back and watch our mistakes," Jeter said. "We made some mental ones, we clean those up, we become a tighter group and get a little better each game, we get a little better each day and we'll be fine."
Original source can be found here.
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