GAMES 6-8
Eastern Illinois heads to Louisville, Kentucky over Thanksgiving to participate in the Louisville MTE event co-hosted by Louisville and Bellarmine.  The Panthers will play those two schools the opening two days before closing tournament action on Sunday morning against East Tennessee.  EIU enters the weekend at 0-5 following a tough road loss on Saturday at Central Michigan.  Louisville is 4-2 and ranked No. 23 in this week's AP poll.  Bellarmine enters at 2-4 while ETSU is 1-5.  The Panthers have only previously faced Louisville among tournament field teams with the Cardinals leading the all-time series 4-0.  The last time EIU played in a three consecutive day tournament was November 2008 at the Cincinnati Thanksgiving Classic.

LEWIS FINISHES IN DOUBLE FIGURES
Senior guard Tiny Lewis made her first start of the season at nationally ranked Michigan State.  She then posted her first double figure scoring game of the season on Saturday with 13 points at Central Michigan knocking down a pair of 3-pointers.  Two years ago Lewis started 29 games during her first season at EIU finishing with 11 double figure scoring games (8.4 ppg average).  Last season she was a key role player off the bench averaging 6.5 points with a team-high 25 made 3-pointers and six double figure scoring contests.

STOLLER REMAINS STEADY
Transfer guard Ava Stoller remains steady for the Panthers this season scoring in double figures for the fourth time with 15 points at Central Michigan.  Stoller ranks in the top ten in the OVC (9th at 14.0 ppg) in scoring this season while increasing her assist total over the last three games to climb to seventh in the OVC in assists per game at 3.4.  Stoller has 14 of her 17 season assists over the last three contests.  The junior continues to be solid at the free throw line as well leading the OVC at 95.7 percent (22-of-23).

BETTER FIELD GOAL PCT DEFENSE AT CMU
Last season Eastern Illinois led the Ohio Valley Conference in both scoring defense and field goal percentage defense holding teams to just 61.0 points per game and 39.2 percent shooting from the field, both numbers ranking in the EIU single season top ten.  On Saturday at Central Michigan EIU was able to hold CMU to 60 points and just 34.4 percent from the field. It marked the first time this season an opponent has been held near last seasons averages.  Entering the CMU game teams were shooting 49.4 pct and averaging 89 points.

UP NEXT
Sunday, December 7 at Illinois State (2 pm / ESPN+)