East Central Reporter

Men's Basketball Rally Comes Up Short At USI

 Eastern Illinois trailed 47-31 at the half and for the second straight week stormed back in the second half before coming up short on the road.  Last week it was at Tennessee State.  This week it was at Southern Indiana as the Panthers lost 78-74.

EIU cut its first half deficit to single digits for the first time with 6:55 remaining in the game on a driving lay-up by Yaakema Rose Jr..  Rose finished with 14 points.  He added another big lay-up in the final minutes as his shot with 2:16 left in the game cut the USI lead to 70-67.

EIU would cut the lead down to three points one more time on a Nick Ellington dunk to make it 72-69.

Isaiah Swope then had the biggest shot of the night for the Screaming Eagles with a 3-pointer with 34 seconds left that made it 75-69. 

Cameron Haffner scored all 17 of his points in the second half to lead EIU.  Ellington had 11 points and Sincere Malone added ten as the Panthers shot 62 percent in the second half.

Jacob Polakovich was big for USI posting a double-double in the first half with 11 points and 13 rebounds before finishing with 20 points and 24 rebounds. 

Jelani Simmons keyed an 11-2 run late in the first half for USI with 11 straight points as he had 20 of his 21 in the opening half.  USI hit 8-of-13 shots from 3-point range in the first half finishing 12-of-24 from behind the arc.

Swope had 11 points for USI as they improved to 13-9 overall, 6-3 in the OVC.

EIU fell to 7-15 overall, 3-6 in the OVC.  EIU hosts Southeast Missouri at 3:30 pm on Saturday. 

Original source can be found here