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Sandy King)
CHARLESTON, Ill. – Eastern Illinois men's basketball had two seniors play their final home game on Saturday afternoon with the Panthers coming up short on senior day against Tennessee Tech. TTU won 63-57.
EIU fell to 14-17 overall, 7-11 in the OVC. The Panthers will play as the No. 6 seed in the upcoming OVC Tournament with an 8:30 pm start time on Wednesday. TTU had its season end at 8-23 overall, 4-14 in the OVC.
On Thursday night Eastern Illinois knocked down 11 3-pointers as they set the EIU team single season record for 3-pointers made. On Saturday it appeared a lid was over the bucket most of the night on long range shots as they hit a season low four 3-pointers finishing 4-of-22.
In the first half EIU was 1-of-11 from 3-point range with the lone make coming by
Mack Smith at the 7:15 mark as he was fouled and converted the four-point play. The basket cut what had been a nine point Golden Eagles lead down to three points.
The two teams would combine for one basket, a 3-pointer by Jared Sherfield, over the remainder of the first half as TTU led 26-20 at the half.
EIU seemed to regroup to open the second half going on an 8-0 run to take a 28-26 lead with 16:45 to play on a dunk by
JaQualis Matlock.
Tennessee Tech battled right back taking the lead and extending the margin to seven points with 11:05 to play on a Corey Tillery lay-up the gave TTU a 39-32 lead.
As baskets proved hard to come by, EIU did build a four point lead with 2:23 left on a free throw by Matlock.
TTU cut that margin to one on the next possession as Hunter Vick sank a 3-pointer to make it 55-54. Vick led all players with 19 points going 4-of-6 from 3-point range.
After free throws by
Josiah Wallace made it a three point game once again, Jr. Clay hit a driving lay-up with 1:32 to play and then hit what proved to be a deciding 3-pointer with 20 seconds left that gave TTU the lead for good. Vick and Sherfield would close out the game at the free throw line after EIU missed a late shot to try and take the lead. Clay and Sherfield both finished with 14 points.
Ben Harvey led the Panthers with 15 points off the bench while Wallace finished with 13. Seniors
Lucas Jones and
Aboubacar Diallo played their final home games for EIU. Jones had one rebound and one steal. Diallo had four points, four rebounds and one block; the 101st of his career.