MACOMB — There was plenty to take away from Wednesday’s season-opening 92-80 exhibition victory over Illinois-Springfield for the Western Illinois men.
The good: Will Carius and Luka Barisic can put the ball in the basket at a high rate.
The duo combined for 53 of WIU’s 92 points.
Also good, WIU was able to get in a much-needed game against competition.
Tamell Pearson continued to show he can be a force inside, scoring 16 points and J.J. Flores and George Dixon showed they can be high-energy, aggressive defensive presences off the bench.
Western also showed a variety of looks, mixing in defensive and offensive lineups as well as playing size, then going small.
“It was great to see different looks, what works, what’s less effective, more effective, the pieces that we have,” Carius said. “We did not see a lot of Trenton (Massner), but I’m excited to see what he can do at the offensive end as well.
“We have a lot of pieces but we also have to shore up what we have defensively as well.”
There was still much to learn for the Leathernecks as the squad struggled defensively at times against the Prairie Stars.
“All the defensive things we need to shore up, there’s no way we can give up 80 points,” Will Carius said. “But it’s the first game, we’ll see film, point out some things.
“At the end of the day, it was good to get a run in and play someone besides ourselves.”
Western came out a little slow, trailing by as many as eight in the first half, but the Leathernecks slowly chipped away, taking a 38-37 lead into half.
Despite the slow start, coach Rob Jeter liked how his team responded to get back into the game and get its halftime lead.
“We were down eight points to this team, last year I don’t know if we would know how to take our time to get back in the game, but I did not see any panic from the staff or players, which is a big improvement,” the coach said. “We have been able to build trust in what we’re doing, now we have to get the discipline to do it every possession.
“We’re getting there, the spring, summer and fall have been very beneficial to us.”
Being versatile will also be a focal point for the team as Jeter liked what he saw from his rotation and lineup variety, but knows guys must continue to get comfortable in different roles.
“We have to be disciplined in understanding and learning multiple positions,” he said. “If you’re playing away from the basket or have to guard around the basket, it’s a different adjustment, the physicality changes, the alertness to cover out.
“When you play a team like this, all five can shoot it, there are some things that take game experience and good film to learn from and we have great film from here to learn from it.”
Health will also be a concern as WIU was without Cam Burrell, who missed the game due to injury.
Another potential starter, Massner, went down with an ankle injury early in the game.
Massner did not return but Jeter is hopeful the transfer can be back in Western’s lineup by the season opener at Nebraska.
“The most important thing is to learn and get better each day, we got some great film of ourselves for practice and now another opponent,” Jeter said. “For us, I’d love a few more days for Trenton to get used to playing with this group, but we don’t have that so we have to move on.
“Exhibitions are more about getting better, we showed up a little rusty today but we’ll take it as it comes. We can’t worry how the games stack up, if you stack them up at the end and someone goes down, it’s a short turnaround before the start of the season, so it will benefit us playing together and getting Trenton back healthy to start the season.”