Tonight is a huge game for the Leathernecks. We are in Fargo, ND and will be taking on the North Dakota State Bison. The Bison are currently 17-11 overall, 9-8 in the Summit and are alone in 4th place in the conference. WIU is 14-13, 8-9 in the conference and are alone in 6th place. Tonight is the last conference game for all the teams in the Summit, so after these games we'll know who will be what seed in the tournament.
A few scenarios for WIU: a win coupled with a Southern Utah loss would give us the 4th seed. A win with a Southern Utah win would give us the 5th seed. If we lose and IUPUI loses, we get the 6th seed. FInally, a loss with a IUPUI win would give us the 7th seed.
An interesting note, the battle for the 8th and final seed in the tournament has come down to a head to head match of IPFW versus UMKC in Kansas City tonight. The winner will punch their ticket to Sioux Falls, the site for the Tournament.
Western, of course, still has the best D in the Summit and are now allowing 60 points per game. That puts them at 32nd in the nation. They are also 2nd in the conference in field goal percent D, three point percentage (they are also 32nd in the nation here), turnover margin, assist to turnover ratio, and turnovers per game (they are 21st in the nation in this stat). They drastically improved their free throw shooting in the loss to SDSU on Thursday. They went 10-12 at the line for a total of 83%. This is the first time in quite some time that they had shot more than 60% on their free throws so hopefully that will continue.
Ceola Clark is back to leading the conference in assist to turnover ratio and is also 8th in the nation. His three point percentage dropped just a bit after the last game where he went 1-6 but it is still impressive. He is shooting 46% and is also 6th in the nation. Terell Parks still leads the Summit in all rebounding categories and also continues to be 2nd in field goal percentage.
As for NDSU, they enter tonight's game shooting 49% as a team, which leads the conference and puts them at 7th in the nation. They also lead the Summit in field goal percent D and blocks per game. They know how to score some points as well, they are the third highest scoring team in the conference and average 74 points per game. However, they did struggle a bit in their loss to IUPUI the other night when they shot just 39% from the field and 22% on 4 of 14 shooting from three.
The Bison boast the man with the highest shooting percentage in the league, Marshall Bjorkland. He is shooting a red hot 67% from the field this year, but like WIU's Terell Parks is ineligible to be ranked nationally. They also have Lawrence Alexander who had a good game the other night when he scored 15 points on 6 of 10 shooting. He also made 3 of his 5 three pointers. Stopping both of these players will be key.
WIU played very well against NDSU when they played earlier this year. They really shut down Bjorkland who had only six points and only took four shots. If they can contain him again tonight, that would be huge. Something else for Western is to get Ceola Clark going. He really did not play that well the other night, which happens, but hopefully he can step up tonight. WIU can still get a decent seed if they lose, but coming out and winning this game would be the best thing to do because you never want to have to rely on other teams losing when you can lock things up yourself.
I know I've been behind on posting pictures, but hopefully I'll get those up ASAP. With school and traveling it's been a little tough to keep up. I'll check out for now, as always...GO LEATHERNECKS!!!
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