Box Score

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CHARLESTON, Ill. – The Panther men's basketball team defeated Olivet Nazarene, 67-60, on Wednesday night in the team's home opener inside Lantz Arena. EIU improves to 1-1 on the year.
 
The Tigers (1-2) took their largest lead of the game, 20-13, on a Zach Wagner layup with 8:58 on the clock before the Panthers used 15-5 run to take a 28-25 advantage with just under four minutes remaining before intermission. EIU never relinquished the lead and led 36-29 at halftime.
 
The Panthers opened the second stanza with an 11-3 run to take their largest lead of the contest, 47-32. ONU battled back and got with one possession on six occasions down the stretch, but the Panther offense responded to hold off the Tiger comeback. EIU went 6-for-6 from the foul line in the closing three minutes to seal the victory. The Panther finished the night going 17-for-23 from the charity stripe.
 
Alex Austin scored a game-high 18 points, going 5-for-12 from the floor and 5-for-5 from the foul line. Dennis Green added 17 points as the redshirt-freshman guard went 4-for-10 from the floor and 9-for-11 from the charity stripe.
 
Keenen Anderson also posted his first career double-double in the victory, scoring a career-high 10 points with a career-high 11 rebounds. He was one of nine Panthers with two or more rebounds in the contest as EIU was outrebounded by one (35-34) on the night.
 
Both squads hit 41.8 percent of their field-goal attempts as they both went 23-for-55 from the floor. ONU went 5-for-18 from behind the arc while EIU went 4-for-17 from three-point range.
 
Defensively, EIU forced 13 turnovers and had nine blocks and seven steals. Mat Piotrowski had four blocks in nine minutes of action while Dylan Chatman had two steals. EIU scored 16 points off of turnovers in the victory.
 
Austin Davis and Reid Farchmin both had 11 points to pace the Tiger offense while Zach Wagner and Tyler Crater both added 10 points. Hunter Jacobs led the team on the glass with 11 rebounds.
 
The Panthers return to action at Illinois-Chicago on Saturday, Nov. 16 at 3 p.m.