SE Missouri Downs EIU Men, Women's Teams

Eastern Illinois cooled off from 3-point range in the second half shooting 1-of-12 from behind the arc as they fell at home to Southeast Missouri, 86-74, on Saturday afternoon.

EIU dropped to 7-12 overall, 3-5 in the OVC.  The Panthers will travel to Nashville next weekend to face league leading Belmont on Thursday and Tennessee State on Saturday.  SEMO improved to 10-11 overall, 4-4 in the OVC.

EIU was hot from 3-point range in the opening half as they connected on 7-of-12 from 3-point range.  Freshman Mack Smith picked up where he left off on Thursday night hitting his first five shots from 3-point range.   Smith finished 5-of-8 from 3-point range as he scored 17 points.

Daniel Simmons matched Smith’s 3-point shooting for the Redhawks as he opened hitting 3-of-3 from 3-point range and kept SEMO in striking distance at the half.  EIU was up 43-36 at the break.  Simmons finished the night 5-of-6 from 3-point range scoring a game high 26 points.

Muusa Dama hit a lay-up to open the second half for EIU as the Panthers pushed the lead out to nine points.  SEMO had back-to-back 3-pointers from Simmons as they tied the game at 47-47 with 17:03 to play in the game.

The two teams would trade the lead over the next four minutes with EIU’s final lead coming on a Jajuan Starks bucket with 13:38 to play which put EIU up 56-55.  Starks was one of five Panthers in double figures with 17 points.

A lay-up by Justin Carpenter and 3-pointer by Jonathan Dalton gave the Redhawks a two-possession lead.  Carpenter extended SEMO’s lead to 65-57 with another low post bucket as he had 11 second points and 24 for the game.

The Panthers would hit a six minute stretch without a bucket late in the second half but free throws by Dama would bring EIU within three points at the 7:39 mark and within two points with 4:03 to play.  Dama recorded his second straight double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds.

The Redhawks would go 14-of-14 from the free throw line in the final 3:25 of the game to close out the contest.  For the game SEMO was 20-fo-22 from the line including 18-of-19 in the second half.  Dalton was 4-of-4 in the final minute to score 10 points.  Brewer was 6-of-6 as he finished with 12 points.

Montell Goodwin had 13 points while Ray Crossland added 11 for the Panthers.

Southeast Missouri 77, EIU Women 54

Southeast Missouri shot 56 percent in the fourth quarter to open up a 23 point lead over Eastern Illinois women's basketball. The Redhawks held EIU to six fourth quarter points and won 77-54.

The Panthers fell to 2-17 overall, 1-7 OVC while SEMO improved to 9-11 overall, 4-4 OVC.

EIU outscored the Redhawks in the second and third quarter trailing by only five points to start the fourth quarter. Tesia Thompson and Adriana Murphy each scored eight points in the final ten minutes to leads the Redhawks to their fourth conference win.

The Panthers shot 28.6 percent from the field on the game led by Danielle Berry who was 2-of-4 from beyond the arc. She finished with a team-leading 13 points and shot a perfect 5-of-5 from the free throw line. Taylor Steele extended her double-figure scoring streak to eight consecutive games as she finished with 10 points for EIU.

Jalisha Smith tied her career-high of nine points off the bench. She tallied two rebounds and one steal in 15 minutes of play. Grace McRae was the team's leading rebounder with five boards. She added six points, four steals, and two assists.

Tesia Thompson recorded a game-leading 18 points for the Redhawks. Adriana Murphy added 15 points and six rebounds. Deja Jones completed the double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds while Iyanna McCurdy scored 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds.

The Panthers will return to action next week on Thursday Jan. 25 at Belmont. Tip-off is set for 5 pm.