GAME 20
Eastern Illinois returns to the road after the Panthers split a pair of home Ohio Valley Conference games last weekend.  EIU went 1-3 on its four-game OVC homestand as the Panthers are now 7-12 overall, 3-5 in the conference.  EIU will play at Belmont on Thursday night and at Tennessee State on Saturday evening.  Belmont is currently leading the OVC race with a 7-1 conference record, 15-6 overall.  The Bruins beat EIU, 75-66, on Jan. 13 in Charleston.

Mack Smith NAMED OVC FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK
Mack Smith was named the Ohio Valley Conference Freshman of the Week after helping the Panthers split weekend games with UT Martin and Southeast Missouri.  Smith averaged 19.5 points per game for the week.  On Thursday against UTM he posted his first career double-double with 22 points and 11 rebounds.  He came back with 17 points on Saturday against SEMO hitting his first five 3-point attempts.  For the week he was 11-of-22 from 3-point range.  He became the second EIU player to win an OVC weekly award this season joining Jajuan Starks (OVC Newcomer of the Week on Dec. 4).  He is the first EIU player to win OVC Freshman of the Week since Terrell Lewis won it three times during the 2014-15 season (last on Feb. 23, 2015).

NO BENCH PRODUCTION AGAINST SEMO
Eastern Illinois has seen a loss in bench scoring production over the last three games as the Panthers have 12 points off the bench over that span.  On Saturday against Southeast Missouri, EIU scored all 74 of its points from the starting line-up finishing the game with a 0 to 29 bench scoring differential.  It marked the first time in 277 games that EIU has not had a bench player scoring in a game. The last time was Jan. 15, 2009 as the Panthers beat Eastern Kentucky, 58-48.

UP NEXT
Saturday, January 27 at Tennessee State - 7:30 pm