Athletics Headlines: Men's Basketball Hangs Around with NCAA D-I, Western Illinois

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November 10, 2006

Men's Basketball Hangs Around with NCAA D-I, Western Illinois

MACOMB, Ill. – The Spartans traveled to Macomb, IL Thursday for an exhibition game against NCAA I, Western Illinois University, and fell to the Leathernecks 86-69. The loss does not count against the Spartans, so MBU remains 2-1 on the season.

The Spartans traded leads with the Leathernecks through the first 11 minutes of the opening half, until a 3-pointer by WIU with 8:25 left in the first period gave Western an 18-16 lead, from which they never looked back.

MBU only trailed the Leathernecks 37-30 at the half, but fell down by as many as 19 points with 3:12 left in the game before eventually succumbing to the 17-point margin. As a team, the Leathernecks shot 42.4 percent from the field, while holding the Spartans to 32.5 percent shooting.

“We played hard” said MBU head coach, Tony Tompkins. “We did a lot of things really well. To come up here and compete with a very good division one team says a lot about our guys this year. We have a lot to look forward to this season” said Tompkins.

MBU will host the defending NAIA Division II National Champions, College of the Ozarks, on November 11th at 5:00 pm.