By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

MACOMB, Ill. — Western Illinois’ 92-56 win over Eureka College on Monday at Western Hall was just the beginning of the night for the Leathernecks.

The game ended at approximately 8:45 p.m., and within the hour the Leathernecks were going to be on a bus headed to St. Louis where, after a few hours of sleep, they were going to get up, have breakfast, and then catch a flight to Little Rock, Arkansas to get ready for Wednesday’s afternoon game against Central Arkansas.

“Planes, trains and automobiles,” joked coach Chad Boudreau.

“I’m a juco guy,” said forward Drew Cisse, smiling. “This is heaven compared to that.”

The Leathernecks haven’t played since a December 9 win at Green Bay because of finals week, and Boudreau scheduled this game against the Red Devils, an NCAA Division III team, to get his team ready for Wednesday, the last nonconference game before Western Illinois opens Ohio Valley Conference play at SIU-Edwardsville on December 31.

“It was kind of what we expected,” Boudreau said. “It’s why we scheduled this game here. We’ve practiced, but we had finals, and the cycle’s off. We’re just all out of sequence. This was a good game to get us in a rhythm, get us back playing.”

“I feel like it was a good team to get our rhythm back against,” said guard Shay Davis, who along with Cisse scored 14 points to lead the Leathernecks. “It’s good to always sharpen up.”

“It’s been off,” said Cisse, who had a double-double with 11 rebounds. “But we’ve been working hard in the classroom, and basketball took a little bit of a back seat last week. We are student-athletes, so finding a balance was tough. Once we got going tonight, it was like, we remember how to do this, let’s go play. And I thought we played better in the second half.” 

Western Illinois (6-6) shot just 42.4 percent in the first half, making just 2-of-11 3-pointers. The Leathernecks, though, shot 60 percent from the field and in 3-pointers in the second half.

“Yeah, it was ugly,” Boudreau said. “But I thought it would be.”

“We were a little sluggish,” Davis said. “But I thought overall we were good.”

Boudreau said the Leathernecks’ offensive flow was “muddy,” but that was to be expected.

“When you play non-Division I schools, they tend to pack the paint, kind of muddy things up. We were too slow in our offense. That doesn’t mean we were trying to get less possessions, we just needed faster ball movement, faster cuts, harder cuts. In the second half, we did that.”

Boudreau used all 14 available players in both halves. Thirteen players scored.

“My goal was to play everybody,” Boudreau said. “Get everybody in the first half, get everybody into the rhythm of the game, because we want to use our depth when we get into the second semester. But on the other side, I want to reward the guys who have practiced all semester. We got that in, got everybody a few minutes, everybody got a stat.”

James Dent Jr., had 12 points and Ryan Myers added 11 for the Leathernecks.

Photo: Western Illinois’ Drew Cisse (left) and Jesiah West laugh with an official before starting the second half of Monday’s game.