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Box Score  |  Photo Gallery (by Sandy King)

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Eastern Illinois knocked down six straight free throws in the final minute of action as the Panthers beat Jacksonville State, 67-61, in the opening round of the 2020 Ohio Valley Conference Tournament presented by TicketSmarter.

EIU improved to 17-14 on the season.  JSU ended its season at 13-19.  EIU will face No. 3 seed Austin Peay on Thursday night at the Ford Center with an 8:30 p.m. start.

EIU built a comfortable lead in the second half as they had a 10-0 run with Josiah Wallace scoring the final eight points in the run.  Wallace scored 25 points in the win as his final bucket in the 10-0 run pushed EIU's lead out to 46-31.

De'Torrion Ware led a 7-0 Gamecocks run as he had a 3-pointer and put-back basket cutting the EIU lead to 46-38.  Mack Smith ended the JSU run with a 3-pointer, one of three the junior hit on the night as he extended his consecutive games with a made 3-pointer streak to 80 games, second longest in NCAA Division I history.  Smith had 17 points.

EIU kept the lead at seven to nine points for most of the first half before Cam Jones bucket cut the lead to four at 61-57 with one minute remaining.  Shareef Smith then sank two free throws for EIU. 

Ty Hudson had the final two baskets of the game for JSU as he scored 13 points.  Following each Hudson basket, EIU converted free throws; first by Mack Smith and then by Kashawn Charles.

Charles had 12 points off the bench with ten coming in the first half.   Charles basket with two seconds left in the first half gave EIU a 27-22 lead at the half.

EIU had nine blocks in the game with four by JaQualis Matlock as he moved into eighth on the EIU single season blocks list.

Jacara Cross led JSU with 16 points.