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Box Score  |  Photo Gallery (by Sandy King)

CHARLESTON, Ill. – A series of runs at different times in the game helped carry Eastern Illinois to a 91-80 win over Southern Indiana on Saturday afternoon as the Panthers sit atop the Ohio Valley Conference standings after the first weekend of league play as the lone 2-0 OVC team.
 
EIU has won four in a row improving to 6-9 overall, 2-0 in the OVC.   USI fell to 8-7 overall, 1-1 in the OVC.
 
Kyle Carlesimo sparked the final deciding run for the Panthers as they led 65-54 with 8:47 remaining in the game.  Carlesimo scored 12 straight points for the Panthers before passing out assists on the final two buckets during an 18-6 run which pushed EIU's lead out to 23 points with 4:05 left in the game.  The final bucket in the run was a 3-pointer by Dan Luers as he had a game-high 20 points.
 
EIU led 44-33 at the half with Luers scoring 13 points.  With the scored tied at 23-23 with 7:05 left in the opening half, Luers drained a 3-pointer from the corner that sparked a 17-2 EIU run over the next five minutes. Luers scored eight points in the run with Nick Ellington scoring the final two buckets in the paint.  Jacob Polakovich ended the EIU run with a bucket with 2:15 left in the half.  EIU did a good job of containing Polakovich after he had 27 points and 26 rebounds in the OVC opener against Southeast Missouri on Thursday.  On Saturday he finished with nine points but did collect ten rebounds including six on the offensive glass.
 
EIU shot 66 percent in the opening half and finished game shooting 60 percent from the floor.  The Panthers were 9-of-18 from 3-point range.  Luers had four 3-pointers with Yaakema Rose Jr., sinking two.  Rose had 12 points joining Luers, Carlesimo (12 pts), Kyle Thomas (11 pts) and Kinyon Hodges (10 pts) in double figures.
 
USI did trim the EIU lead down to six points with 14:52 to play on a jumper by Gary Solomon.  He would tie as the Screaming Eagles leading scorer with 16 points off the bench.  Trevor Lakes added 16 points going 4-of-10 from 3-point range as USI ended the game 9-of-27 from behind the arc. 
 
EIU answered that threat with a Thomas 3-pointer opening a 13-3 EIU run.  Thomas had seven points during that Panthers run.
 
Isaiah Swope (14 pts) and Tyler Henry (12 pts) rounded out the double figure scorers for USI.