By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

MACOMB, Ill. — Chad Boudreau is searching for answers on how he can fix his team.

It was something he was still thinking about after Western Illinois’ 84-64 loss to Coastal Carolina on Friday night at Western Hall.

The Leathernecks (1-5) allowed a 26-6 run to start the second half that took away whatever hopes they had in the first game of an early-season multi-team event that includes a Sunday game against North Dakota.

This was a weekend Boudreau, the Leathernecks’ head coach, thought would be a good indication of what his team could do in Ohio Valley Conference play, since Coastal Carolina and North Dakota resemble league opponents.

“We had shots that were wide-open, and we didn’t make them,” Boudreau said. “And then we let them get rolling, and they were a team you couldn’t let get rolling. We’ve got to figure things out.”

His players shared the same sentiment.

“We talked about just playing harder,” said forward Francis Okwuosah, who had 16 points. “We’ve got to play harder. Bring more energy, bring more effort. We’ve got to get stops, so we’ve got to turn the page defensively, take guys out of their stuff.”

“I just feel like we’ve got to come together more — our energy is lacking,” said forward Karyiek Dixon, who also had 16 points. “I feel like we got good players all around, but it’s just like we got to come together and just play as one group.”

Western Illinois made just 2 of 12 shots during that second-half run of the Chanticleers (3-2), who began a three-day weekend of games that includes a Saturday game against North Dakota and a Sunday game at Illinois State.

“We have swings that are really bad,” Dixon said. “We were down 20, and then we just stayed there. We take really bad shots sometimes. So we’ve got to clean that up. Defensively, we were very poor. We’ve got to do better. Everybody has to buy in, help each other out, fill the gaps.”

“At the start of the second half, they came out with more energy than us, outexecuted us,” Okwuosah said. “We’ve got to get back to our principles. We came down, took a lot of questionable shots. They got themselves in rhythm and got themselves running, and we didn’t have a response for it.”

They were positives, Boudreau said. He pointed to the play of Okwuosah and Dixon, the play of forward Goanar Biliew, who made his first start of the season, and the play off the bench of players off the bench like freshman Makai Kvamme and graduate student Nick Hittle — Kvamme had six points and Hittle had four.

But there was also the play of forward Isaiah Griffin and guard Lucas Lorenzen, who went a combined 2 of 17 from the field.

“We need to get those guys going,” Boudreau said. “We had a lot of positives, but those are the guys we need to lead us.”

Western Illinois shot just 37.1% overall, and made just 3 of 17 3-pointers.

“It’s very frustrating,” Okwuosah said. “When you have great shots that you feel like you should be hitting, ones that you hit a lot of times, but you don’t hit them, you’ve got to play through that. I feel as a group, our energy needs to be better, even playing through those missed shots, playing through those bad possessions like that. Those shots are going to fall eventually.”

RaSheed Jones led Coastal Carolina with 20 points, one of four Chanticleers in double figures.

It’s a quick turnaround for the Leathernecks, who would like to shake this early-season funk.

“This is frustrating, but internally, we know what we need to fix,” Okwuosah said. “We’ve got the things that we really did key in on and lock in on and get better with. So we just got to turn the page. It’s all on us, all 15 players, and the five coaches, to fix it. So hopefully we can come out on Sunday with that fix and get a win.”

“I believe in our team and I believe in our coaches and the program we’ve got,” Dixon said. “Are we going to start winning? Yeah, I think we can.”