EASTERN ILLINOIS (12-19, 8-12 OVC) at SIUE (19-12, 12-8 OVC)
Wednesday, March 4  •  6 pm 
Evansville, Ind.  •  Ford Center

GAME COVERAGE
RADIO: Hit Mix 88.9 WEIU
TV: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: www.eiupanthers.com
SERIES RECORD: EIU leads 20-15
LAST MEETING: @SIUE 77, EIU 50 on February 28, 2026
NOTES: EIU Complete Game Notes

GAME 32
Eastern Illinois makes a return to the Ohio Valley Conference for the first time since the 2024 event as the Panthers will play as the No. 8 seed facing No. 5 seed SIUE in the opening round.  The winner matches up with UT Martin on Thursday in Evansville.  SIUE beat EIU in the regular season finale on Saturday in Edwardsville as the Panthers ended the regular season at 12-19 overall, 8-12 in the OVC.  The Cougars posted a reverse record of 19-12 overall, 12-8 in the OVC.  This marks the third time in school history EIU has closed the OVC season against the same opponent its opened the OVC tournament against with previous occurrences in 1998-99 against Southeast Missouri (Lost / Lost) and 2015-16 against Murray State (Won / Lost).  It happened once in the Mid-Continent Conference in 1990-91 against Western Illinois (Won / Won).

FRUSTER ENDS REGULAR SEASON IN DOUBLE FIGURES 
Zion Fruster finished with 11 points on Saturday at SIUE as the lone Panthers player in double figures.  Fruster, EIU's leading scorer throughout the season, posted his 23rd double figure scoring game this season and the 63rd of his four-year college career.  Fruster went over the 1,250 point mark for college career on Saturday at SIUE (1,260) with 737 of those points scored at EIU which ranks the senior ninth on the EIU 2-year player scoring chart.  Fruster scored an EIU career high 28 points on Feb. 21 against Southern Indiana.

WHITE'S FREE THROW STREAK
Meechie White helped ice the Panthers road win at the line last Thursday going 10-of-10 at the stripe at Lindenwood to score ten points.  He was held to eight points on Saturday at SIUE ending his streak of consecutive double figure games at four.   White did pick up a steal for the 12th straight game increasing his season total to 64 steals which is now third on the EIU single season list.  He ranks ninth in the OVC in assists and seventh in assist-to-turnover ratio.  White has made 30 consecutive free throws (last miss was Jan. 29 against UT Martin).  The EIU record for consecutive free throws made is 54 by Charlie Thomas (1977-78).

JACOBI REACHES EIU MILESTONE
Eastern Illinois graduate student Kooper Jacobi reached an EIU career milestone in Saturday's game at SIUE as he became just the 13th player in school history to reach the 600 rebound mark for his career.  The last to do it was Ousmane Cisse from 2006-09.  Jacobi got within striking distance of the mark with his Thursday performance at Lindenwood with a career high 30 points and 13 rebounds.  It was his third double-double this season and the 14th of his career.  Jacobi led the OVC in rebounding last year at 8.9 rpg.