.
CHARLESTON, Ill. – Eastern Illinois turned a two-point halftime lead into a blowout win as senior Jake Byrne scored a career-high 30 points to lead the Panthers to a 80-64 win over Jacksonville State.
EIU improved to 6-22, 5-14 in the OVC while JSU dropped to 6-22, 4-15 in the OVC. Eastern Illinois closes out the regular-season with a senior night game on Saturday versus Samford. Tip time is 7:15 p.m. at Lantz Arena.
Byrne was 12-of-17 from the floor while also pulling down 10 rebounds for his second career double-double. He had 15 points in the first half as the Panthers built a 32-30 halftime lead shooting 52 percent from the free throw line.
The Panthers lead grew to double digits for the first time in the second half as Ousmane Cisse converted a lay-up with 17:06 left. Jeremy Bynum and Will Ginn answered with 3-pointers for the Gamecocks to trim the lead to 45-39 with 14:29 left.
Tyler Laser responded with a bucket and Byrne hit back-to-back lay-ups as the Panthers stretched the lead up to 13 points with 12:43 left. Bobby Catchings scored with 2:25 left in the game to give the Panthers a 19-point margin.
Catchings finished with five points and six rebounds as he became the 9th player in Eastern Illinois history to score 1,000 points and collect 500 rebounds. He now has 501 career rebounds to go along with 1,101 points.
Laser added 21 in his second start of the year hitting 8-of-10 from the floor and 5-of-7 from 3-point range. Cisse just missed a double-double with 12 points and 9 rebounds. Jon'Tee Willhite passed out 11 assists, his second straight game with double digit assists.
Ginn led JSU with 15 points while Erik Adams contributed 13 off the bench. EIU won the battle in the paint by a 42-16 margin while outrebounding the Gamecocks by a 40-21 margin.
