Western Illinois University NCAA News

Eric Carlson scored 19 points Thursday night to lead North Dakota State past Western Illinois 60-55 in the Summit Conference opener for both teams.

The league's leading all-purpose yardage man -- RB Deji Karim of Southern Illinois -- has been named Missouri Valley Football Offensive Player of the Year in a vote of league coaches, media and sports information directors.

Sophomore guard Tommie Tyler drives to the hoop in the second half. He scored 22 points in the contest.

UNI lineman shares MVFC defensive award. By JOHN BOHNENKAMP jbohnenkamp@thehawkeye.com Northern Iowa's James Ruffin was named the Missouri Valley Football Conference's defensive co-player of the year when the league's all-conference team was announced Wednesday.

Savannah St. beats W. Illinois 52-48 Eds: APNewsNow. Savannah State 52, Western Illinois 48.

Western Illinois faces No. 12 ranked South Dakota State this Saturday at Hanson Field for its season finale.

MACOMB, Ill. a ' The 12th-ranked South Dakota State University football team made a final statement toward locking up a Division I Football Championship Subdivision playoff berth Saturday afternoon, downing Western Illinois, 27-7, at Hanson Field.

Ceola Clark had a game-high 16 points and seven rebounds to lead Western Illinois past Central Arkansas 56-46 Saturday night, Clark made most of his points at the free-throw line, where he was 11 of 12.

MACOMB, Ill. - The third time had better be the charm. After failing to do so in each of the past two weeks, South Dakota State will again try to gain an eighth win of the season that would likely lock up a berth in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs and thus end the school's 30-year postseason drought.

Quenton Kirby scored 18 points Wednesday night as Western Illinois picked up its first victory, defeating Truman State 71-59. David Nurse added 15 points and Jeremy Felton 12 for the Leathernecks .

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 12:08 p.m. Read more: Local , Basketball , College , TSU For the first time since 2005, the Truman mena s basketball team will play a regular season Division I opponent as the a Dogs make the short trip over to Macomb, Ill.

Western Illinois' Arsenio Mims, back, tries to block a shot by Kansas State's Curtis Kelly .

It's halftime at Bramlage Coliseum, and the Kansas State basketball team leads Western Illinois 31-20. The Leathernecks, fresh off a 35-point outing in a season-opening loss at Arizona State, led early on 12-10. But the Wildcats responded with a 13-2 run to give themselves some breathing room.Denis Clemente leads all scorers with nine points.

The new edition of Arizona State looked a lot like the one that won 25 games and made the second round of the NCAA tournament last season.

Of all five Illinois state schools, Western Illinois' junior quarterback Matt Barr has been selected to receive the Lincoln Academy Student Laureate Award.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Wil Lunt gets sacked during the third quarter. Illinois State sacked Lunt six times in the contest.

Senior running back Dre Gibbs has averaged 111.9 yards a game and 4.5 yards per carry so far this season.

Western Illinois University's basketball team finally got to see someone else. "It was really good," guard Quenton Kirby said after the Leathernecks defeated Monmouth College 75-64 in Thursday's exhibition game at Western Hall.

If it seemed Missouri State linebacker Antoine Wilkinson made a tackle on every play Saturday, it's because he nearly did.

N DAKOTA North Dakota rallies to upset Cal Poly 31-17 GRAND FORKS, N.D. North Dakota rallied from a 10-point deficit with 24 unanswered points to upset Cal Poly 31-17 on Saturday.