By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

MACOMB, Ill. — It was the kind of game where one could look at the box score and find the points that got away.

Western Illinois’ men’s basketball team fell 59-54 to Tennessee Tech on Saturday at Western Hall. It was the sixth consecutive loss for the Leathernecks (4-13), who dropped to 0-6 in Ohio Valley Conference play.

The Leathernecks opened the game with an 8-0 run, led by as much as 10 points late in the first half before leading 26-18 at halftime, and then let the Golden Eagles (7-10, 2-4) come back in the second half.

“Yeah, it is frustrating,” said guard Lucas Lorenzen, who had 15 points. “You know, this is the third or fourth time where we’ve been up a significant amount and we just couldn’t close it out.”

The Leathernecks missed 10 free throws, and gave up 14 points on 15 turnovers. Those add up in a close game, and coach Chad Boudreau knows that.

“It’s the same thing we’ve talked about all season — it’s execution,” he said. “It’s a lack of execution defensively, a lack of execution offensively.”

Tennessee Tech, which shot just 27.6% in the first half, shot 57.1% in the second half. The Golden Eagles got 40 points inside for the game, 26 those coming in the second half as they continually got to the basket.

“They only had 18 points in the first half, then they have 41 in the second half,” Lorenzen said. “We just had too many breakdowns defensively, and they just had some schemes that just picked us apart. Yeah, we absolutely have to be better.”

“We can’t execute defensively, and we can’t execute offensively, and it’s on me,” Boudreau said. “I have not been able to get this group to execute at the level we need to. We can point to what we don’t have, but we should still be able to execute. That should be our advantage here, is we have to get where we can just out-execute people We’re not going to out-jump them, we’re not going to out-athletic them, we’re not going to outrun them. We have to out-execute them. And when we don’t execute, we’re not going to beat people.”

The Leathernecks, though, nearly found a way to get the game to overtime in the closing minute. They were down 55-50 with 49 seconds left when Lorenzen completed a 3-point play, then he stole the inbounds pass for a layup that cut the lead to three.

But Tennessee Tech ate away at the clock, with Mekhi Cameron getting to the basket for a layup right before the shot clock expired. The Leathernecks got back within three when Isaiah Griffin, who led the Leathernecks with 16 points, hit two free throws with 11.7 seconds left, then Cameron made two free throws after being fouled catching the inbounds pass, providing the final margin

Western Illinois starts a four-game road trip with Tuesday’s game at Eastern Illinois.

“We’ve got to amp it up,” Lorenzen said. “We’ve got to really figure out on film what we’re not good at, and we just got to start working on those things specifically. Our togetherness and being connected as a team just has to be better too. That’s the No. 1 thing — if you’re not connected as a team, you can’t expect to win any game.”