Box Score |
Photo Gallery (by
Sandy King)
CHARLESTON, Ill. – A weekend full of comebacks best describes what the Eastern Illinois men's basketball team just went through. The Panthers trailed OVC co-leader Murray State by 27 points with 11:45 remaining on Thursday night before rallying to win 63-60.
On Saturday, the Panthers once again found themselves trailing an OVC leader by double digits with over 11 minutes to go. EIU once again rallied, this time in overtime, as they beat Austin Peay 83-80 in overtime sweeping the weekend home series.
The Panthers improved to 14-14 on the season, 7-9 in the OVC. APSU fell to 19-10 overall, 13-3 in the OVC.
The two teams traded the lead 14 times in the first half with Austin Peay taking a 35-34 lead into the locker room at the half. Terry Taylor scored 16 of his 26 points in the first half. EIU shot 52 percent in the opening half but APSU held the lead with a rebounding margin.
EIU and APSU continued to trade the lead through the opening five minutes of the second half before Jordyn Adams took control for the Governors. He scored 26 of his game-high 31 points in the half. He had three 3-pointers in the span of one minute, forty seconds that pushed APSU's lead out to 61-48 with 11:11 to play.
After EIU cut it back to single digits on a
Josiah Wallace jumper and
Jordan Skipper-Brown dunk, Taylor answered to make it a double digit Governors lead with 8:46 left to play.
The Panthers then went on extended 14-4 run with Skipper-Brown scoring four points and both
Mack Smith and
Shareef Smith draining big 3's. A lay-up by
Mack Smith tied it at 67-67 with 3:07 left to play as he finished with 15 points, one of four Panthers in double figures.
George Dixon tied the game with 29 seconds left in regulation before Adams missed a long jumper with two seconds in regulation.
The teams traded the lead three more times with two ties in overtime before EIU closed out the game at the free throw line. Wallace hit a pair of free throws and
Mack Smith added one with five seconds left. Austin Peay had three shots in the final 51 seconds including two missed 3-pointers.
Wallace led EIU with 23 points. Dixon posted his tenth double-double of the year with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Shareef Smith had ten.
Taylor had a double-double pulling down 16 rebounds to go with his 26 points. Eli Abaev had 11 rebounds as APSU won the battle on the glass 41-34, but both teams collected 11 offensive rebounds.