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CHARLESTON, Ill. – Eastern Illinois saw a nine point halftime lead slip away as the Panthers scored only 16 second half points during a 58-51 loss to Ball State on Wednesday night at Lantz Arena. The loss was the second straight by EIU as they fell to 3-6 on the year. BSU improved to 4-3.

Ball State took the early lead in the game building a six point lead at the 12:20 mark as Chris Bond had a put-back lay up and Juawan Scaife made a jumper to lift BSU to a 16-10 lead. BSU held a one point lead with seven minutes to go in the half as Jarrod Jones finished off a fast break for two of his game-high 20 points.

Following the Jones lay-up EIU closed the half with a 16-6 run fueled by 3-pointers by Taylor Jones and Curry McKinney as the Panthers led at the half 35-26. EIU held the lead despite shooting only 38 percent in the first half.

That shooting percentage continued to cool off in the second half as Ball State opened with a 17-3 run to take a five point lead at 43-38 with 13:46 remaining. Scaife sparked the run with a 3-pointer and an old fashioned three point play as he added 16 points for the Cardinals.

EIU trimmed the BSU lead back to one point on a Jeremy Granger free throw with 12:14 left but Ball State had an answer for each EIU threat as they outscored EIU 32-16 in the second half. EIU was limited to just 15 percent from the field in the final twenty minutes shooting 28 percent for the contest.

Granger led the Panthers with 11 points while McKinney and Shaun Pratl each chipped in with ten. James Hollowell pulled down 16 rebounds with his three blocked shots moving him up to tenth on the EIU career blocked shots list with 52.

The Panthers return to action on Saturday hosting Western Illinois at 6 p.m.