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Sandy King)
Eastern Illinois men's basketball sent its seniors out on a high note Saturday afternoon as the Panthers won their fourth straight to end the season while snapping OVC regular season champion Southeast Missouri's 10-game win streak.
EIU picked up the 73-58 win at Groniger Arena to finish at 12-19 overall, 8-12 in the OVC. SEMO ends the regular season at 20-11, 15-5 in the OVC.
SEMO opened with a 5-0 run with Rob Martin scoring five of his 18 points to open the game. EIU responded with an 11-2 run as
Rodolfo Bolis had a put-back basket, the first of two straight baskets for one of seven EIU seniors.
After the teams traded the lead over the next couple of minutes
Malik Olafioye knocked down a 3-pointer with 10:04 to play in the first half giving EIU a lead it would not relinquish for the half. The Panthers led 36-32 at the half holding SEMO to 37 percent shooting from the floor.
The Panthers pushed the lead to double digits with 17:05 to play on a
Kooper Jacobi basket. Jacobi added eight rebounds as he ended the regular season as the OVC leader in rebounds and cracked the EIU single season top ten.
SEMO closed the margin over the next ten minutes tying the game at 52-52 on a 3-pointer by Braxton Stacker. Stacker was the second Redhawks player in double figures with 12.
Senior
Nakyel Shelton broke the tie sparking an 11-1 run and the Panthers never looked back. Shelton led all players with 28 points while fellow senior
Artese Stapleton scored 22.
Bolis pulled down ten rebounds to go with his six points. EIU honored seniors Bolis, Shelton, Stapleton,
Corey Sawyer Jr,
Carson Prost,
Lazar Grbovic and
Sekou Kalle before the game.
SEMO was 11-of-27 from 3-point range in the game but ended overall shooting 34.6 percent from the field.