By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

MACOMB, Ill. — Chad Boudreau said certain losses have “haunted” him in his coaching career.

Western Illinois’ 70-68 loss to South Dakota at Western Hall on Sunday is going to be one that bothers the Leathernecks’ coach for a while.

Bostyn Holt’s layup as time expired delivered the win to the Coyotes (6-3), a long-time Summit League rival of the Leathernecks before Western Illinois’ move to the Ohio Valley Conference this season.

Boudreau, in his first season as the Leathernecks’ head coach after three seasons as associate head coach, took the blame for the defeat, and for how his team has started the season.

“I need to temper expectations,” he said. “I’ve talked an awful lot about what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it. We’re not there, we’re not close in my mind.

“There’s a certain expectation of where I want us to get to, offensively and defensively. And we’re not there.”

What bothered Boudreau was the Leathernecks (3-6) knew what was coming on the last play, because they’ve run it themselves.

The play, in Western Illinois’ terminology, is called “Oral Roberts”, because that Summit League school has also used the play.

Western Illinois had tied the game with 3.9 seconds left on Ryan Myers’ 3-pointer when the Coyotes came out in the formation Boudreau expected.

South Dakota’s Isaac Bruns, who was going to throw the inbounds pass, was guarded by Western Illinois’ Jesiah West. Bruns passed the ball to Max Burchill standing out of bounds to his right along the baseline. Burchill’s inbounds pass went to Felix Bostrom, who immediately flipped the ball to Holt.

Holt raced toward the basket, getting past Western Illinois’ Quinlan Bennett and Drew Cisse, who leaped to try to block the shot, as did West, who had raced from the far end of the court. But Holt’s shot settled into the net as the buzzer sounded.

“Honestly, they just executed their action and we weren’t able to execute defensively,” Myers said. “Obviously, (Holt), he’s a talented player. He made the play.”

“It was a tough play,” said Western Illinois guard J.J. Kalakon. “We needed a stop, and we didn’t get it.”

“The alignment was set,” Boudreau said. “We knew it was coming, but you have to keep the ball from getting that downhill, that deep. And we didn’t. And it’s on me.”

Boudreau had viewed this game as a good test for what the Leathernecks are going to see in the OVC. 

“We’re big and we’re athletic,” Boudreau said. “But we’ve got to quit saying that. It doesn’t matter how big you are and how athletic you are, if we can’t execute offensively and defensively, then it’s going to be a long year. And that falls on me.”

Western Illinois built a 41-32 lead early in the second half before the Coyotes answered with a 7-0 run. The Leathernecks pushed the lead back to 46-39, then South Dakota responded with a 12-0 run.

“As Coach Boudy says, ‘Hold the line,’” Myers said. “Once we get up, we have to bury teams. It’s important to stop (those runs), while at the same time, we’ve got to hold ourselves accountable. We can’t get loose because we go up nine points. We’ve got to turn that nine into 15, that 15 into 25. We’ve got to keep going.”

The Leathernecks trailed 68-65 when Myers hit his 3-pointer from the left side. It was his seventh of the game, the most by an OVC player this season.

Myers led the Leathernecks with 25 points. Kalakon, who has become a valuable player off the bench for Western Illinois, added 12.

“It’s just believing in yourself, working on consistency,” said Kalakon, who played 21 minutes and scored eight of his points in the final 8 ½ minutes of the game. “Keep working, no matter what’s going on.”

The Leathernecks also got 20 rebounds from Cisse, tied for fourth most by an NCAA Division I player this season.

Paul Bruns led South Dakota with 19 points.

Western Illinois plays host to Coe College on Wednesday. It’s going to take longer than that for Boudreau to stop thinking about this game.

“It’s frustrating,” he said. “It’s on me. That’s fine. It should be. I’m the head coach.”

Photo: Western Illinois guard Quinlan Bennett keeps an eye on South Dakota’s Steven Kramer.