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Tennessee State made a living at the free throw line on Thursday night as the Tigers were 18-of-21 from the stripe in the second half as they picked up a 66-49 win over Eastern Illinois at Groniger Arena.
 
EIU trailed by two at the half but put together a nice offensive spurt in the opening minutes of the second half to take a pair of three point leads in the first four minutes of the second half.  Kooper Jacobi gave the Panthers their first three point margin with a jumper with 16:49 to play and Nakyel Shelton gave EIU its second three point cushion with a jumper with 15:54 remaining.  Jacobi was one of three Panthers in double figures in the game finishing with 12 points.
 
The Tigers would score 12 of their next 14 points at the foul line and slowly pushed the lead out to eight points with 11:00 minutes left on free throws by Josh Ogundele.  Julius Jackson followed with a 3-pointer stretching the lead to eleven points and EIU could never counter.  Ogundele had ten points, one of three TSU players in double figures.  Trave Harper II led all players with 14 followed by Aaron Nkrumah with 13.
 
EIU was held to 27.6 percent shooting for the game with Zion Fruster and Obadiah Curtis joining Jacobi in double figures as both players scored ten points. 
 
TSU finished the night 24-of-31 at the charity stripe improving to 13-13 on the year, 9-6 in the OVC.
 
EIU made 22 trips to the free throw line knocking down 14 of their own as they dropped to 8-18 overall, 4-11 in the OVC.