Photo Gallery (by Sandy King)

Eastern Illinois hung tough with No. 1 Purdue in the early portion of the first half before falling to the Boilermakers, 109-62, on Friday afternoon at Mackey Arena.

The Panthers hit two of the their first three shots from 3-point range standing tied 12-12 at the first media timeout.   EIU then trailed 19-16 at the second media timeout with Preston Turner scoring eight early points.  Turner finished with 11.

Purdue used a big rebounding edge to extend the lead to six at 27-21 with 7:53 to play in the opening half.   The Boilermakers then stacked a pair of runs together to close the half leading 53-28 at the half.

Meechie White banked home a 3-pointer to stop a 9-0 Purdue run before the Boilermakers closed the half with an 8-0 spurt.

EIU opened the second half 4-of-6 from the field but could not cool off a hot-shooting Purdue team that finished the game shooting 63.1 percent from the field.

The Boilermakers used an extended 25-0 run the second half, the third big run of the game for Purdue.  White broke that run with 6:40 to play with a running lay-up.  White finished with 23 points to lead EIU, going 8-of-10 from the field. 

Terry McMorris was the third Panthers player in double figures finishing with 13.

Purdue had balance all game with Daniel Jacobsen leading the team with 24 points as six Boilermakers scored in double figures.  Purdue finished with a 37-17 rebounding edge.

EIU falls to 2-5 on the season playing the No. 1 team in the nation for the first time in program history.  Purdue improved to 7-0.