EASTERN ILLINOIS (14-16, 8-9 OVC) at Western Illinois (18-11, 11-5 OVC)
Thursday, Feb. 29 • 7:30 pm
Macomb, Ill. • Western Hall
GAME INFO
RADIO: Hit Mix 88.9 WEIU
TV: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: www.eiupanthers.com
SERIES RECORD: Series tied 84-84
LAST MEETING: WIU 63, @EIU 60 on January 13, 2024
NOTES: EIU Complete Game Notes
GAME 31
Eastern Illinois wraps up the regular season schedule on Thursday evening as the Panthers play at long-time in-state rival Western Illinois. EIU closed out its home schedule on Tuesday with a win over SIUE to move to 14-16 overall, 8-9 in the OVC. EIU and SIUE are now locked in as the No. 6 and 7 seeds and will meet in the late game on Wednesday in the opening round of the OVC Tournament. Final seeding will be determined by results in the final games this week. It marks EIU's first appearance in the OVC Tournament since the 2019-20 season. Western Illinois, playing in its first season as an OVC member, has qualified for the tournament and enters the final week of the season fourth in the OVC standings at 18-11 overall, 11-5 in the OVC.
BOOKER OFFENSIVE OUTPUT
Tiger Booker had another offensive explosion for the Panthers on Tuesday night as he matched his collegiate career high for points with 33. Booker's other 33-point game was as a freshman playing at LeMoyne-Owen in Memphis when he scored 33 against Miles. This season Booker has one other 30-point game when he scored 31 points in EIU's road win at Little Rock. Booker earned OVC Player of the Week honors following his performance that week in road wins at UT Martin and Little Rock. Booker ranks sixth in the OVC in scoring this season at 16.2 points per game. He has increased that average slightly in conference games ranking fifth in the league at 18.8 points per game. Booker is currently in the OVC Top Ten in assists, assist-to-turnover ratio, field goal percentage, free throw percentage and steals.
TEAM STEALS CHASE
Eastern Illinois continues to lead the Ohio Valley Conference in steals per game as the Panthers average 8.1 steals per game. EIU has 244 steals this season which moved this year's team into sixth on the school single season record book list. The Panthers led the OVC in steals per game last season at 8.2 setting the single season school record with 260 steals.
Sincere Malone led the OVC in steals last season with 62. This year EIU has two players currently in the OVC top ten with
Tiger Booker leading the league with 57 and
Kyndall Davis in third in the OVC with 45. On Tuesday, Booker moved into the EIU single season Top 10 for steals and is currently tied for ninth with Steve Rowe (1991).
UP NEXT
Wednesday, March 6 vs. SIUE - 9 pm at OVC Tournament (ESPN+)
