By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

MACOMB, Ill. — Mia Nicastro wasn’t happy.

Western Illinois had let a 13-point lead turn into a two-point deficit at the end of the third quarter in Thursday’s game against Little Rock at Western Hall and Nicastro, who opened the quarter with a 3-pointer, had been shut out for the final 9:40 of the quarter while getting double-teamed and knocked around.

“I think all of them, my coaches and my teammates, joke that I play better when I’m pissed off,” Nicastro said. “So I started getting pretty pissed off and I told the team, ‘We’re not going to lose this game.’ And I wanted to do everything I could for us to win the game.”

What the senior forward did was take over the game with a perfect fourth quarter, scoring 21 of her career-high 37 points in the final 10 minutes to lead the Leathernecks to an 84-73 win.

Western Illinois, 21-4 overall, heads into the weekend with a 13-3 record in the Ohio Valley Conference and with a 1 ½-game lead on Lindenwood and Southern Indiana, two teams left on schedule in the Leathernecks’ final four regular-season games.

A consistent message that coach JD Gravina has been delivering to his team in the closing weeks has been to play with a championship mentality, and this game was an example of that. The Leathernecks fought off a 12-2 second-quarter run and a 17-3 third-quarter run by the Trojans with runs of their own — a 9-0 stretch in less that two minutes in the second quarter the crucial 11-0 run to start the fourth quarter, with nine of those points coming from Nicastro.

“JD said, ‘Let’s play championship basketball,’” Nicastro said. “ And I think we’ve really kind of embraced that and tried to do that. The games are getting more physical. There’s a little bit more on the line every single game that’s closer to the tournament. So we’re just battling, and we’re ready to face anything that comes our way.”

“It’s the final sprint to the finish,” Gravina said. “It’s only going to get harder.”

It got difficult for the Leathernecks when the Trojans (12-13, 8-7) dominated the third quarter, taking their first lead of the game at 57-55 on Mya Cotto’s layup to end the quarter.

The Leathernecks had just two field goals in the quarter after Nicastro’s 3-pointer, struggling to get any open looks.

Nicastro, who came into the game fifth in scoring in NCAA Division I play at 23.9 points, had 16 for the game after the first three quarters, but the long shutout aggravated her.

There were no specific instructions, Gravina said, to get Nicastro the ball in the fourth quarter.

“They’re smart enough to know that,” Gravina said, smiling.

“That’s our No. 1 goal,” guard Kaylen Reed said. “That’s our No. 1 player.”

Nicastro scored 10 seconds into the quarter on a turnaround shot to tie the game, then broke the tie a minute later when she was fouled as she scored, and then converted the 3-point play. Reed’s basket with 8:30 to play put Western Illinois up 62-57, then Nicastro scored the next 10 points as the Leathernecks extended the lead to 72-62.

Nicastro’s last field goal came with 1:24 to play, and her last points came with two free throws with 22 seconds left.

Nicastro did not miss a shot in the quarter — she was 5 of 5 from the field and 11 of 11 in free throws.

“I missed three in a row in the third quarter,” Nicastro said. “So, when you come out to start the quarter and you hit one, then you hit another one, you start feeling it. So I think that that kind of pull-up shot to start the fourth kind of got me going a little bit, and then I kind of just went from there.”

“I tell her, she gets in this flow,” Reed said. “She has this type of play that whenever she starts hitting shots, she just goes off and I think that’s very eye-opening for a point guard,” Reed said. “Just get her the dang ball, that’s my job. I get her the ball and get out of the way.”

Reed just shook her head when told of Nicastro’s fourth-quarter numbers.

“Insane,” she said.

Nicastro played all 40 minutes.

“The crazy thing is, they’re being so physical with her all game,” Gravina said. “She plays 40 minutes, and she has the energy to play like that down the stretch. She hits free throws, she hits those little jumpers.

“She’s just such a good player.”

But Nicastro had help. Addi Brownfield had 17 points and then locked down Little Rock’s Jordan Holman in the fourth quarter, holding her to just two points in the quarter on a night when she would finish with 23. Reed had 15 points.

And there were those answers to the Trojans’ scoring runs, stretches that teams chasing a championship make.

“It’s just toughness, to handle those runs and stay calm,” Gravina said.

“It shows a lot about our team, how we can step up when we’re down,” Reed said.

“I always think adversity in a game is good for us as we near the conference tournament,” Nicastro said. “Battling through when things don’t go the way we want them too. We just have so many players who can step up to do the job.”

Nicastro, fueled by the anger of the moment, stepped up in this one.

“That’s who she is,” Gravina said. “So clutch.”

Top photo: WIU’s Mia Nicastro scored 37 points in Thursday’s win over Little Rock. (Photo courtesy of WIU Athletic Communications)