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Eastern Illinois rallied from 14 points down in the second half to tie the game with 4:38 left to play but could not get all the way over the hump falling at Western Illinois 70-66 on Thursday night.
EIU wraps up the regular season 14-17 overall, 8-10 in the OVC. EIU plays SIUE next Wednesday in the opening round of the OVC Tournament.  Western Illinois improved to 19-11 overall, 12-5 in the OVC.
WIU led 35-28 at the half and extended that lead out to as high as 14 points with just under 15 minutes to play in the game.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by
Nakyel Shelton cut the margin to five points at 47-42 with 10:44 to play. Shelton finished with 24 points, one of three Panthers in double figures on the night.
After another quick spurt by WIU,
Dan Luers cut the lead to four points on a four-point play with 7:04 to play and followed that up with a jumper at the free throw line on the next possession to make it a two-point WIU lead.
The Panthers would eventually tie the game with 4:38 to play on a Shelton 3-pointer. EIU finished the night 10-of-17 from 3-point range, Shelton was 6-of-8 from behind the arc. Luers was 3-of-3 from 3-point range.
Drew Cisse broke the tie for Western Illinois on a put-back rebound dunk, one of 16 offensive boards the Leathernecks had leading to 17 second chance points. Cisse had 10 points.
Quinlan Bennett finally iced the game for WIU making one of two at the foul line with six seconds left for the final margin of victory. Bennett had 14 points to lead WIU.
Luers had 16 points and
Tiger Booker 13 points to round out EIU top scorers.Â