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EASTERN ILLINOIS (11-14, 4-9) vs. SIU Edwardsville (7-15, 5-8)

Feb. 15, 2012  •  7 p.m. (CST)
Lantz Arena  •  Charleston, Ill.
Radio: Hit Mix 88.9 FM  •  TV: WEIU
Mike Bradd & Jack Ashmore

GAME 26
Eastern Illinois picked up a pair of road wins on Thursday and Saturday at Tennessee Tech and UT Martin as the Panthers moved to 11-14 overall, 4-9 in the OVC.  EIU will play its final home Ohio Valley Conference game on Wednesday night hosting SIU Edwardsville.  EIU's final home game is Saturday with a Sears Bracketbuster game with Illinois-Chicago.  The OVC season ends on the road next week at Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky.  SIU Edwardsville is playing its first OVC schedule of games this season but is not eligible for the OVC post-season tournament.  SIUE is 7-15 overall, 5-8 in the OVC. 

EIU-SIU EDWARDSVILLE SERIES
This will be only the fifth meeting between Eastern Illinois and SIU Edwardsville in what will now become EIU's closest OVC rival.  The Panthers lead the series 3-1 after winning in Edwardsville, 73-59, in early January.  Prior to that the last meeting was on Feb. 12, 1983 with EIU winning 80-57 in Lantz Arena.  SIUE was a long time NCAA Division II member before recently making the transition to Division I.  This is their first season playing an OVC conference schedule but the Cougars are not eligible for the OVC Tournament.

SCOUTING SIU EDWARDSVILLE
SIU Edwardsville has three players averaging in double figures led by Mt. Zion, Ill., product Mark Yelovich at 14.3 points per game.  Jerome Jones is averaging 13.2 points and freshman Kris Davis is scoring 12 points per game.  Most of Davis damage this season has come from beyond the 3-point line as he leads the NCAA shooting 60.5 percent with 46 made 3-pointers.  As a team SIUE shoots 39.6 percent from 3-point range to rank 14th nationally.

OVC ROAD SWEEP
EIU accomplished a rare feat for the program over the weekend as they swept an OVC weekend road swing for the first time since January 2001.  Since joining the OVC for the 1996-97 season, EIU has only swept a road conference swing on five occasions with two of those taking place at Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State.

PANTHERS PICK UP ROAD SWEEP
Eastern Illinois swept its weekend road swing through Tennessee with Saturday's 74-71 victory at UT Martin.  It was the first time since January 2001 that EIU had swept a pair of OVC road games on the same weekend.  Joey Miller set the EIU Division I era freshman record for scoring with 28 points.  Jeremy Granger scored 12 points off the bench as head coach Mike Miller jumbled his line-up for the second straight game.  The Panthers led 40-33 at the half and iced the game with 14-of-19 free throws in the final half.

MILLER FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK
Freshman guard Joey Miller won his third Ohio Valley Conference Freshman of the Week award after leading the Panthers to a pair of road wins.  Miller averaged 19 points per game with most of the damage coming on Saturday at UT Martin.  Miller knocked down 6-of-12 from the field, 4-of-6 from 3-point range and 12-of-16 from the free throw line to score 28 points.  That total sets the NCAA Division I era for freshman scoring in a game.  The previous mark was 27 set by both Romain Martin and Tyler Laser.  Miller previously won the award Nov. 26 and Jan. 9.  He is now second on the Panthers team with 10.8 points per game.

HOLDING THE OPPONENT DOWN
Eastern Illinois held an opponent below 35 percent shooting for the second straight game as UT Martin was limited to just 32.3 percent from the field.  On Thursday EIU held Tennessee Tech to 32.7 percent as the Panthers put together their best two defensive games of the season.  Over the last four games, EIU has held opponents under 40 percent shooting in three games with opponents shooting just 37.2 percent from the field while scoring 57.8 points per game.  On the year EIU has held opponents to under 40 percent shooting in five games posting a 4-1 record in those contests.

EIU ONE LINERS
• Jeremy Granger moved up to 18th on the EIU career scoring list last week as he now has 1,203 career points.  Granger is the career leader in free throw percentage at EIU at 87.4 percent.  He needs two more assists to climb to fourth in career assists and needs six more free throws to reach the top five in that career category.

• Nick McFarlin picked up his first start of the season and second of his career on Saturday at UT Martin.  McFarlin responded with seven points including his second career 3-pointer.  Over the past two games McFarlin has made 7-of-10 shots from the floor averaging 7.5 points and 3.5 rebounds per contest.

• Austin Akers started his second straight game at UT Martin finishing with five assists and one turnover.  Over the past three games, Akers has been brilliant at the point position with 16 assists compared to just two turnovers in those three games.  Akers leads the Panthers with a 2.6-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio for the season.

• Joey Miller knocked down 12 free throws on Saturday at UT Martin marking the second time this season that the freshman has sank 10 or more free throws in a game.  Miller was 10-of-10 in the win over Maine on Nov. 30.  For the season Miller and teammate Jeremy Granger both rank in the OVC's top ten for free throw shooters with Granger ranked 24th in the NCAA.  EIU is 24th as a team in free throw percentage at 75.3.

• James Hollowell continues to put up good numbers as he seems to be returning to full health.  On Thursday in his second start of the season Hollowell had 17 points and six rebounds at Tennessee Tech.  On Saturday, Hollowell came off the bench at UT Martin and just missed a double-double with nine points and eight rebounds.  He is shooting 58.8 percent from the field in his last two games.

• EIU picked up its 11th win of the season on Saturday at UT Martin.  The 11 wins are the third highest total for EIU under head coach Mike Miller.  The Panthers won 19 games in 2010 and 12 games during the 2009 season.  If the Panthers were to win out their regular season games they would finish with a .500 or better record for only the 13th time in the NCAA Division I era of the program.

• Josh Piper scored nine points off the bench on Saturday at UT Martin snapping a three game scoreless streak for the freshman.  He has made 16 straight free throws.

• Eastern Illinois will host Illinois-Chicago in this year's Sears Bracketbuster contest.  The Panthers are 3-3 in previous bracketbuster games including three straight wins.

EASTERN ILLINOIS HEAD COACH MIKE MILLER
Mike Miller enters his seventh season as the head coach of the Eastern Illinois with what may be his most athletic team in his tenure at EIU.  Last year EIU battled through several injuries as EIU played 12 different starting line-up combinations, a figure ranking among the top ten in the nation.  The previous season Miller led the Panthers to their first winning season in 10-years as they finished 19-12 with an 11-7 mark in the OVC.  EIU advanced to the OVC Tournament semifinals after winning a school Division I record eight straight games in February.  The 19 wins were the third highest win total for EIU as a NCAA Division I member as Miller has posted a 74-127 record at EIU.  The seven game OVC win streak was the best in school history as Miller has a 43-82 OVC mark.  A 1987 graduate of East Texas State, Miller was hired with a history of helping to build programs after success as a head coach at Texas State and associate head coach at Kansas State.  While at Texas State, Miller coached the team to two Southland Conference championships and a 1997 NCAA Tournament appearance.  He owns a 161-206 career record. 

PANTHERS PICKED 9TH IN OVC RACE
Eastern Illinois was picked to finish ninth the preseason Ohio Valley Conference preseason predictions.  The Panthers finished in ninth place last year ending a two-year run of making the OVC post-season tournament.  The Panthers were picked ahead of Jacksonville State and SIU Edwardsville in the 11 team race.  Austin Peay was the preseason favorite just ahead of Tennessee Tech and Murray State.  The top eight teams will advance to this year's tournament at Municipal Auditorium in Nashville on Feb. 29 - March 3.  SIU Edwardsville will play a league schedule and games will be counted in the standings but the Cougars are not eligible for the conference tournament.

GRANGER A PRESEASON ALL-OVC SELECTION
Senior Jeremy Granger was named to the preseason All-Ohio Valley Conference team after earning second team NABC All-Region honors last year.  Granger led EIU in scoring at 14.5 points per game while passing out a team high 98 assists.  The senior was 8th in the NCAA in free throw shooting connecting on 90.4 percent from the stripe.  He enters the 2012 season as the Panthers career leader in free throw percentage at 87.4 percent.  Granger is on pace to finish the season over the 1,000 point mark for his career and in the top ten for career assists. 

PANTHERS SIGN THREE IN EARLY PERIOD
EIU head coach Mike Miller signed three players to National Letters of Intent during the early signing period.  Joining the Panthers next season will be Cameron Harvey, R.J. McGhee and Alex Phillips.  Harvey is a 6-3, 190 guard playing his senior season at Wheaton Academy in West Chicago.  McGhee is a 6-6, 190 guard who is currently a sophomore at Dodge City CC in Kansas.  Phillips is a 6-2, 185 guard who is currently a sophomore at New Mexico JC.

OVC GOES TO NEW SCHEDULE FORMAT
The Ohio Valley Conference will have a new format this season as all league schools will play a 16-game schedule.  Conference schools will play a home-and-home series against six opponents while playing the remaining four schools on their schedule only one time.  This season EIU will travel to Jacksonville State and Tennessee Tech without a return visit from those two schools.  The Panthers will play host to Austin Peay and Tennessee State without having to pay a return visit to Clarksville or Nashville.  The OVC season will also start later than in year's past with the conference opener for EIU on Dec. 30 against Murray State.

OVC EXPANDING TO 12 TEAMS IN 2012
Much like many of the larger conferences, the Ohio Valley Conference will also be undergoing expansion next year as Belmont University (Nashville, Tenn.) will become the OVC's 12 member institution.  Belmont currently plays as a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference.  EIU is 1-1 against Belmont splitting a home-and-home series in 2010.