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Eastern Illinois men's basketball received great production from its bench on Thursday night led by Corey Sawyer Jr., with 15 points as the Panthers improved to 4-0 at Groniger Arena this season with a 75-58 win over IUPUI.
 
The win moved EIU to 5-5 on the season while IUPUI dropped to 3-7.
 
IUPUI opened the game with a 7-0 run over the opening 2:30 of the contest.
 
Rodolfo Bolis snapped the run for the Panthers with a basket off the bench with 16:14 left in the first half.  The basket by Bolis sparked a 13-0 run by the Panthers as they took the lead on a Bolis basket with 13:25 to play in the first and never trailed again.  Bolis scored seven points off the bench as the Panthers finished with a 41-24 advantage in bench production.
 
Sincere Malone scored off the bench with 9:04 to play in the first to give the Panthers their first double digit lead of the contest.   EIU would take a 34-28 lead to the locker room at the half.
 
The Panthers extended their halftime lead to double digits with two quick baskets in the opening minute of the second half by Jermaine Hamlin and Tiger Booker.  IUPUI would never get the lead back to single digits again as EIU shot 64 percent in the second half and 52 percent for the game.
 
In the second half, Sawyer scored eight of his 15 points as he finished 6-of-10 from the field on the night. Kooper Jacobi joined Sawyer with team-high honors with 15 points while also hauling in 15 rebounds.
 
Jlynn Counter led the Jaguars with 19 points, the lone IUPUI player in double figures.