Maybe Trenton Massner was just tired of winning ugly.
The Leathernecks came into Monday night’s game against North Dakota winners of two straight, but did not get to that point in the flashiest of ways. Western Illinois had held its opponents during that streak – Kansas City and St. Thomas – to an average of 54 points, while scoring just 60 points themselves. Rewind the tape from Monday night and Massner nearly hit that mark on his own.
With 46 points in a win over the Fighting Hawks, the senior guard broke the WIU single-game scoring record, tied the most points by a Division I player this season and found himself as the lead story on SportsCenter when he was anchor Scott Van Pelt's "Best Thing I Saw Today".
The floodgate-opening triumph was also the latest in what has been a second wind for Rob Jeter’s team. The Leathernecks are now above .500 in League play (5-4) and one of the hottest teams in the conference having won four of their last five games.
For Massner, the 46-point outburst was the boldest exclamation mark yet for a player that has been as pivotal for his team (16.3 ppg, 5.2 apg, 5.6 rpg) as arguably any in the country. And that production has been even more critical for a Leatherneck squad that tipped the season looking very different than it did a year ago.
Jeter talked about what Massner – his lone returning starter –
would mean before the year.
“It’s important not to try to repeat and go back to year one, especially when you have a lot of new faces,” the third-year coach said. “Trenton Massner is really going to help anchor our team so we have to build around that.”
Anchor he has. Starting with a triple-double against in-state rival Illinois State on opening night, Massner has continued to contribute on every inch of the court. He’s currently logging the best assist rate in the Summit (31%), which is nearly 10 percentage points higher than it was a year ago, and has led to an uptick of 1.2 assist per game.
While the cold numbers provide perspective, there’s something almost indescribable about Massner’s game. He always seems in control, and almost glides across the court in a rangy way that let’s him separate from defenders on offense, and hound opposing ball handlers on defense.
That has all led to a season that is on pace to be just the second by a Leatherneck since 1992 with averages of at least 16 points, four assists and five rebounds per game. The other? The one that Massner himself posted in his all-league first team campaign a year ago. In the broader context, he’s one of just nine players in the country this season with those numbers.
Oral Roberts' Max Abmas is on that list, and while it seems cliche to say that Massner is in his shadow, that is somewhat the position that the Leatherneck guard finds himself in. He’s doing his best, however, to make sure Abmas does not run away with the League POY award that he might otherwise be the clear frontrunner for in most seasons if not for the presence of the Golden Eagle legend. But that should not detract from what has been a historic campaign, and impressive two-year run in Macomb.
More importantly, Massner has underpinned a team that is climbing standings, just like his coach hoped.
The 92-point effort harkened back to last year’s Leathernecks’ team that routinely put 90 points on the scoreboard with a barrage of three’s. This year’s version has pumped the brakes and has not been as explosive, but may be rounding into a team more capable of making some noise down the stretch. Jeter predicted before the year that the team may not be as long, but would be more athletic.
By grinding out defensive wins over the Roos and Tommies in the past few weeks, WIU has been displaying more potential on that side of the ball than it did a year ago.
“They threw a lot of curveballs at us defensively, and they were just tougher tonight,” Marvin Menzies said after WIU held his Kansas City team to just 31.3 percent shooting back in the Swinney Center on Jan. 14.
Junior College transfer Jesiah West has added oomph defensively, and Massner remains a defensive lynchpin in the Leathernecks’ tight rotation. Those back-to-back defensive gems, paired with the UND win, have WIU on just its second three-game League winning streak in the last 10 years.
They’ll look to continue to grow as the conference season nears its halfway point with as potent an anchor as any team in the country.
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