** During the month of July EIUpanthers.com will take a look back at 11 moments, events or performances that helped shape the 2016-17 school year. **
Eastern Illinois men's basketball has a new all-time assists leader as point guard Terrell Lewis broke the previous mark on January 19, 2017 in a road game at UT Martin.
Lewis broke the previous record of 415 set by Johnny Hernandez as he helped the Panthers jump out to an early lead in the road game with Demetrius McReynolds draining a jumper with 16:16 to play in the first half to give Lewis the record.
Lewis has been one of the top assist men in the OVC during his three year career with the Panthers. He now has 463 career assists at EIU and needs 68 assists to break into the Ohio Valley Conference career top ten for assists. When the NCAA basketball season opens next year Lewis will begin the season ranked eighth among active players in the NCAA in total assists.
In addition to passing out assists, Lewis has been the top guard in the OVC the last several years in assist-to-turnover ratio. He led the OVC in that category last season and ranked 25th in the NCAA. He will open next NCAA season ranked fifth among returning active players in assist-to-turnover ratio.
