Tweet #W1NasONE

Eastern Illinois (11-9, 5-4 OVC) vs Austin Peay (12-8, 3-6 OVC)
Saturday, Feb. 30 | 1:30 pm
Clarksville, Tenn. | Winfield Dunn Center
Live Stats | Listen | Watch

GAME NOTES

THE PANTHERS ON THE PROWL: The Panthers stay on the road to take on Austin Peay for the second game of the trip. The Panthers are coming off of tightly contested loss against Murray State. In the game, the reigning OVC Freshman of the Week, Lariah Washington, scored the second most by an EIU freshman with 35. Washington was only 3 points off from tying the record set by Jessica Huffman in 2006. Along with Washington, Wahl put up 19 and 9 in the loss as the Panthers will look to bounce back and get their sixth win of conference play on Saturday. 

THE GAME PLAN: This is the first meeting of the Governors and the Panthers this season. These two teams are competing for position in the fourth to ninth spot of the conference. The Panthers are coming off of two losses, but the team is much better than what was expected of them at the beginning of the season. Bollant's team is currently ranked fifth in the OVC and could start to pull away with another win against Austin Peay. The Governors have solid pieces, but the Panthers look to be a better team on both ends. We have seen how well the Panthers can play if shots fall in games (UT Martin), but the defense has really proven to open up their offensive attack. The Panthers will look to get stops and get easy buckets in transition, and hopefully suck the momentum out of the Winfield Dunn Center on Saturday.

SCOUTING THE GOVERNORS: Austin Peay is coming off of a double-digit victory against SIUE on Thursday .The Governors leading scorer, Arielle Gonzalez-Varner, is averaging 11.5 points and 8.4 boards per- game at 6' 1". The Panthers will want to wear her out down low as she is a main source of the teams offense. Austin Peay is sitting around the middle of the pack for the OVC and this game could have some big implications on seeding for the OVC tournament. This is a game that each team will be fighting hard for, as the Panthers want to prove that they can beat anyone in the conference. Statistics don't favor the Governors, but the stats don't mean anything if the defense isn't there Austin Peay are good defensively, so look for the Panthers to look to work it inside and get their players in trouble defensively.

UP NEXT: The Panthers will be back on home court to face off against Eastern Kentucky for their second match up of the season. The Panthers defeated EKU on the road earlier this season in which they won 83-63.