EIU Men, Women, SIUE Men End Seasons

NASHVILLE, Tenn.  – The Panther men’s basketball team was defeated by Southeast Missouri, 79-61, in the opening round of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament on Wednesday night at Municipal Auditorium. EIU finishes the year with an 11-19 overall record.

Southeast Missouri improves to 18-13 on the year and will play No. 3 seed Eastern Kentucky in the quarterfinals at 8 p.m. on Thursday, March 6. EIU was also eliminated from the conference tournament last year by the Redhawks.

The Panthers opened the game on a 4-0 run before the Redhawks scored 12 unanswered points to take a 12-4 advantage at the 15:16 mark. EIU used a 15-5 run to regain the lead, 19-17, with 7:20 on the clock. SEMO outscored the Panthers, 20-10, in final seven and half minutes to take a 39-27 advantage into intermission.

The Redhawks outscored the Panthers, 20-12, to open the second stanza as they took their first 20-point lead (59-39) at the 12:37 mark. SEMO led by as many as 22 points (74-52) with 4:15 left in the contest.

SEMO hit 50 percent of its shot attempts (31-for-62) and went 8-for-14 from behind the arc. The Redhawks also went 9-for-18 from the foul line.

EIU only hit 37.3 percent (22-for-59) of its shot attempts and went 5-for-17 from three-point range. The Panthers also went 12-for-19 from the charity stripe.

SIUE Loses In Opening Round

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – SIUE junior Kris Davis scored a game-high 19 points Wednesday night, but it wasn't enough as Tennessee Tech fought off a Cougar comeback for a 74-67 victory over SIUE in the first round of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament at Municipal Auditorium.

SIUE ends the season at 11-20. Tennessee Tech improved to 17-15 and advances to Thursday night's quarterfinal game against Morehead State.

Down 16 at half, the Cougars used a 53.6 percent (15-28) shooting performance in the second half to pull within four in the game's final 90 seconds.

"I didn't think we played well, especially defensively yet it was a four-point game before (TTU's Jeremiah) Samarrippas hit the three with about 1:30 to play," SIUE Head Coach Lennox Forrester said. "Our guys did a tremendous job fighting back and staying in the game to where we had a chance down the stretch."

Davis was 5 for 12 from the field, including 2 for 4 from three-point range, and connected on 7 of 8 attempts at the free throw line.

"He was aggressive. He was aggressive the way I know he can be," Forrester said of Davis. "He was scoring in a variety of ways. He was making threes, he was scoring at the rim, and he was scoring at the free throw line."

Davis surpassed 900 points for his career with the 19 point-effort. He now has 906 points and is 20th all-time in scoring at SIUE.

SIUE shot just 25 percent (7-28) in the first half, while allowing Tennessee Tech to shoot 59.1 percent (13-22). TTU led 38-22 at the break.

EIU Women's Season Ends

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Eastern Illinois women’s basketball season came to an end on Wednesday afternoon as the Panthers lost, 75-52, to Eastern Kentucky in the opening round of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.

EIU ends its season at 12-16.  EKU improve to 16-12 and will face Tennessee State in the OVC quarterfinals on Thursday.

Much like EIU’s win over EKU back in early January, the Panthers drove the ball to the basket in the opening half to earn trips to the free throw line.  Unlike the January game, the normally steady Panthers shot just 11-of-19 from the line in the opening half to trail 37-25.

The two schools traded the lead in the first six and a half minutes with free throws by Katlyn Payne putting EIU up 11-10 with 13:29 to play in the first.  Free throws by EKU’s Jasmine Henshaw on the next possession sparked a 13-4 run by the Lady Colonels.  Cierra Drake’s jumper put EKU up 23-15 at 9:52.  Drake had 12 points for EKU.

EIU trimmed the lead back to three points as Payne again connected at the free throw line.  Payne had ten points for EIU.  The Lady Colonels closed the half on a 12-3 run.  Michaela Hunter had 12 of 17 points in the first half off the bench.  EKU outscored EIU 38-8 in bench production.