By JOHN BOHNENKAMP
CANTON, Ill. — Danny Stephens understands college basketball’s calendar.
Stephens is in his fourth season overall as a college player, and second at Western Illinois, so he knows a loss in November can be an education more than a cause for panic.
“The main thing is, though, just staying positive,” Stephens said after Saturday’s 74-67 loss to Houston Christian. “Everybody’s got to stay positive because it is a long season and things can turn like that. I’ve witnessed it with many, many teams.”
It was the second loss in the opening week for the Leathernecks, who lost 80-58 at Valparaiso in Monday’s opener. This one, though, they can blame on themselves, and they did after the game, which was played at Spoon River College’s arena because of a conflict with scheduling at WIU’s Western Hall.
Houston Christian (2-0) scored 29 points off 16 Leatherneck turnovers. Western Illinois gave up 52 points inside, and was just 14 of 24 in free throws.
“I feel like today’s game was definitely self-inflicted,” center Daivion Traylor said. “We’ve just got to get better and move on to the next game.”
“Those are things that are controllable, things that we can work on and get better at,” Stephens said. “And I think tonight we showed a lot of effort. We didn’t give up when we got down. After mistakes, we still kept fighting.”
It’s something coach Chad Boudreau noticed in his team.
“I told the guys this — I still feel really good about who we are and where we can be,” he said. “Our talent is there. We’ve just got to figure it out.”
This is, with a few exceptions, a new team. Stephens and Makai Kvamme were key players on last season’s team, and Jack Riley sat out the season with a knee injury, but the rest of the roster is new.
“I’ve got to figure out rotations and getting people into system and staying into system,” Boudreau said. “I give (Houston Christian) a lot of credit — they sped us up and got us out of system, and that’s when we made mistakes.”
Houston Christian’s run that turned a 49-47 deficit into a 60-51 lead came midway through the second half, and it was sparked by four Leatherneck turnovers that were converted into nine points for the Huskies.
“I know we’re big enough,” Boudreau said. “I know we’re physical enough. But in the last two games, we’ve had stretches where people have gotten us out of system. Live ball turnovers that lead to layups, you’re just not going to win a lot of games doing that. And despite that, we’re still in the game and had a chance to win with eight minutes ago.”
That’s when the free-throw woes really kicked in. Western Illinois trailed 62-57 when Riley went to the free-throw line three times in the span of 48 seconds, and made just 1 of 5 free throws.
“We had guys missing free throws tonight who usually make them,” Boudreau said. “That hurt.”
Stephens led the Leathernecks with 15 points. Traylor had 12, and Kvamme had 11.
It’s a quick turnaround for Western Illinois, which plays host to Simpson College on Monday and CSU Bakersfield on Thursday.
“We’ve got to get going again,” Traylor said. “Honestly, we really don’t have time to really dwell on this game.”
“We want to be playing our best basketball come January and February, and so whatever happens now, you just got to live with it and move on and just take what we can,” Stephens said.
Photo: Western Illinois assistant coach Bryan Martin (center) and head coach Chad Boudreau (right) talk to the team during a timeout in Saturday’s game.
