By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

It is never easy to win four games in four days in a conference tournament.

Which is why Western Illinois coach JD Gravina wants to shorten the time his team has to play in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament in the future.

Time ran out on an emotional run for the Leathernecks during this season’s tournament in an 86-75 loss to Lindenwood in one of Friday’s semifinals at the Ford Center.

Western Illinois (16-16), the seventh seed in the tournament, got past UT-Martin and rival Eastern Illinois in the first two games, but a late run sent the Lions (21-9), the second seed in the tournament, into Saturday’s 3 p.m. championship game against top seed Tennessee Tech.

Western Illinois went 8-12 in conference play this season, good enough to get the Leathernecks into the tournament but not good enough to get them the single-bye or the double-bye that goes to the top four teams.

“The main thing I’ve learned is we’ve got to play better in the regular season,” Gravina said. “This conference rewards a great regular season. I really like that.”

Western Illinois was outscored 25-15 in the fourth quarter, 15-7 over the final 2:05. The Leathernecks led by as much as nine points in the first half, and matched Lindenwood’s 9-0 run to start the second half with a 14-4 run of its own. But they couldn’t match that fourth-quarter surge.

“We were running on pure adrenaline,” Gravina said. “I could kind of feel it each night, just getting a little more tired, and then not sleeping as well each night, which is a bad combination. But you could feel it with our team, but you also just had so much momentum and adrenaline that I really think for the most part of the game, we were able to sustain that. And then, maybe, in the fourth quarter, we might have ran out of gas a little bit.”

Western Illinois’ Raegan McCowan capped a brilliant tournament with 35 points on 13 of 27 shooting. She had 84 points in the three games.

“Raegan had just a phenomenal tournament,” Gravina said. “I’m guessing that probably broke some records.”

McCowan had 17 points in the first half, helping Western Illinois to a 37-36 halftime lead.

“I was just ready to kind of take what the defense gave me,” McCowan said. “Obviously, Coach gives me the freedom to take my shots, which helps everything in my game, and open things up. Maybe not a lot of other players get the opportunity to play like that.”

Mia Nicastro and Mallory McDermott each had 12 points for the Leathernecks.

The three-game run helped McDermott reach the 1,000-point mark for her career. She came into the tournament with 970 points after suffering a calf strain that kept her out of the final two regular-season games.

McDermott scored 34 points in the three games.

“It just broke my heart thinking that that probably could cost her getting 1,000 points,” Gravina said of McDermott’s injury. “And honestly, our whole team rallied around that. Our whole team rallied because they know what she’s put into it. Obviously we wanted to win for a lot of reasons, but there was a little bit of a cry to win, to give Mal a couple more chances to get that 1,000th point. And that was just a huge silver lining in our game today. But that’s a huge accomplishment. That’s a huge accomplishment at the Division I level. And so I’m really proud and happy for her on that.”

“This place is special,” McDermott said. “It’s been so good to me. I’ve had just phenomenal teammates and coaches. Even this week, it’s just showed how much love there is the fact that they were so willing to rally behind me for that accomplishment. I’m so thankful and blessed to have gone here. It was the best choice I ever made.”

The Leathernecks lose McDermott, along with Jasmine Nichols and Kennedy Flanagan.

“We will miss all three of them, but obviously we have just a phenomenal core coming back,” Gravina said. “And so I feel like the future is definitely bright. I think they’re probably all pretty excited to get back to work.”

Photo: Western Illinois’ Kennedy Flanagan (left) and Allie Meadows (right) go for a steal in Friday’s semifinal loss to Lindenwood. (Photo courtesy of the Ohio Valley Conference).