By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

MACOMB, Ill. — College basketball’s magic number is 20 wins.

There is something psychological about the number, a sign of a successful season.

Western Illinois’ men’s basketball team has bigger goals ahead after Saturday’s 76-65 win over SIU-Edwardsville in the regular-season finale at Western Hall.

But the Leathernecks got to 20 wins, something that hasn’t been done in the program since the 2012-13 season.

“It’s big,” said first-year head coach Chad Boudreau. “We talked at the beginning of the year — we had no culture. You want to start building something.”

“Coming from what we’ve come from the last couple of years, it’s special,” said forward Jesiah West. “It’s a big accomplishment for us.”

The Leathernecks (20-11 overall, 13-5 Ohio Valley Conference) opened this season 3-6, the last loss in that stretch a last-second home loss to South Dakota. Five of those losses were on the road as guarantee games — UTSA, SMU and Wisconsin, along with Illinois and Valparaiso in a multi-team event. 

“We could have fallen apart early in the year when we were playing those five buy games, road games,” Boudreau said. “But we didn’t. We stuck together, they stuck to the plan, and we got better.”

The Leathernecks, in their first year in the OVC, were in contention for the conference title until the 78-57 home loss to Morehead State on February 22. They also suffered back-to-back home losses to Little Rock and UT-Martin. Western Illinois ended up finishing fourth in the conference, one game behind those three teams that shared the regular-season championship.

The Leathernecks have won three consecutive games since the loss to Morehead State.

“Those are the games where you could have fallen off the cliff,” Boudreau said. “And we didn’t. But that’s them. They shake it off. They’re professionals. They shake that stuff off faster than we do. They move on. And I’m proud of them.”

Home hasn’t been where the wins have been for the Leathernecks until this current stretch, and the victories have taught them something as they head to next week’s conference tournament in Evansville, Indiana.

“I’m definitely happy we were able to get the fans some wins,” said guard Ryan Myers, who led the Leathernecks with 24 points. We were definitely struggling at home for a little stretch, so I’m happy we were able to end the season with a three-game winning streak at home.”

Western Illinois led only 49-48 with 13 ½ minutes left in this game before going on an 18-6 run.

“I’m just happy we closed the game out, something we hadn’t done in some of the past games,” said guard Ryan Myers, who scored 10 consecutive points in that run. “We’re going into the OVC tournament knowing we can close out games, and we’re going there to win it.”

“We had to learn how to finish games,” said West, who had 13 points. “Tonight we learned how to finish one. We’ve still got some things to clean up, but we finished this game.”

Myers was 6-of-12 from the field, including 3-of-7 in 3-pointers.

“I wasn’t even thinking about it, just shooting,” Myers said. “Everybody tells me to shoot — my teammates, my coaches. I’m going to shoot them when I get good looks.”

“I think in the second half, he let the game come to him,” West said. “Once he makes shots, he’s hard to stop.”

Quinlan Bennett had 13 points for the Leathernecks. JJ Kalakon had 11.

Damarco Minor had 20 points and 11 rebounds to lead SIUE (16-15, 9-9).

Photo: Western Illinois’ Ryan Myers drives to the basket in Saturday’s game against SIU-Edwardsville. (Photo courtesy of WIU Athletic Communications)