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Eastern Illinois had a balanced scoring effort on Thursday night as the Panthers won their second straight with a 71-59 road win at Western Illinois.
EIU improved to 7-15 overall, 3-8 in the OVC. WIU fell to 8-14 overall, 2-9 in the OVC.
EIU built its first double figure lead of the game at the six-minute mark of the first half on a basket by
Artese Stapleton putting EIU up 21-11. Stapleton was one of five Panthers in double figures finishing with 16 points.
EIU closed the first half on a 7-0 run to end the half and led 32-19 at the half.
WIU cut the EIU lead down to five points with 13:13 remaining as a Ryan Myers lay-up trimmed EIU's lead to 42-37.
Nakyel Shelton answered with a 3-pointer off a big offensive rebound by
Kooper Jacobi and EIU turned away all of WIU's threats down the stretch.
Shelton had 15 points. Jacobi posted his ninth double-double with 14 points, 11 rebounds.
Corey Sawyer Jr and
Obadiah Curtis rounded out the double figure Panthers. Sawyer had 12 points. Curtis had ten including several big buckets in the opening half.
EIU won the battle on the glass for the second straight game with a 40-28 advantage including 12 offensive rebounds.
WIU had three players with 14 points with Trey Deveaux, Massal Diouf and Myers all leading the Leathernecks. WIU was held to 3-of-15 from 3-point range.