By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

MACOMB, Ill. — JD Gravina knows his team can wear out opponents.

It was a message the Western Illinois women’s basketball coach gave to his team in Thursday’s game against Southeast Missouri State at Western Hall, and his players responded with a second-half fury to win 69-55.

“I told our team, I think we’re the type of team that if we just keep playing aggressive, it’s hard for teams to keep up for 40 minutes,” Gravina said.

The Leathernecks had a 10-0 run to end the third quarter, then had a 12-0 run in a three-minute stretch of the fourth quarter, to bury the Redhawks and take sole possession of first place in the Ohio Valley Conference. Western Illinois’ win, coupled with Southern Indiana’s 69-67 loss at home to Lindenwood, put the Leathernecks (17-3 overall, 9-2 OVC) up by one game over Southern Indiana, Lindenwood and Morehead State and by 1 1/2 games over UT-Martin, which comes to Western Hall for a Saturday afternoon game.

“I think we came out in the second half with a toughness mentality,” said forward Mia Nicastro, who led the Leathernecks with 27 points and 13 rebounds for her 10th double-double of the season. “We kind of focused on that, found some fight in ourselves, and I think that’s what allowed us to slowly widen the lead.”

The Leathernecks led 30-24 at halftime as the Redhawks (7-13, 3-8) bothered them with pressure not just in the full court, but in the half-court as well.

“We had a great defensive half, we held them to 24 (points), but offensively, we weren’t very tough,” said guard Addi Brownfield, who had her own double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. “Lots of lots of silly turnovers, and that’s not what we do. So I think being able to adjust to their pressure was the difference. They were getting in our grill, so we had to just have that toughness mentality coming into the second half and just kind of being tough right back.”

“I thought they played pretty good transition (defense) for about 25 minutes,” Gravina said of the Redhawks. “But I knew they’re gonna have some breakdowns, and they did. And then the next thing you know, we’re up 15.”

Western Illinois was up 37-35 before going on the 10-0 run. Then after Southeast Missouri State got to within 51-42, that’s when the Leathernecks went on their 12-0 run. They led by as much as 24 points before the Redhawks went on a late run.

“I think it was just capitalizing on turnovers and capitalizing in transition,” Nicastro said. “That’s what we do well when when we’re playing our best basketball — we’re pushing the ball, we’re moving the ball well in transition, we’re taking what the defense gives us, and we’re just playing tough. And I think that’s all we did when we had those two runs. It’s hard for teams to keep up with us when we whenever we push it in transition. We just play Leatherneck basketball.”

“I think we have five extremely talented girls out there that can score it any given moment,” Brownfield said. “And I think we also have a great defensive team, and I think that kind of fuels our offense. So once we kind of get a lot of those few stops in a row, and then push the ball, any one of us can score it, so it’s hard to stop for other teams. I think it’s just about knowing that we’re going to hit those streaks eventually in the game and then just keep going, keep playing through it, and we have players that we know can knock down shots.”

“It always feels we’re one possession away from starting a 10-0 run or something like that,” Gravina said. “That’s what good teams do.”

It was the first game at home for the Leathernecks coming off a four-game road trip.

“Long stretch, lot of time on the bus,” Nicastro said, laughing. “So it was good to be home. Tough game on Saturday, so let’s keep it rolling.”