East Central Reporter

Heartbreaking Home Loss For Men's Basketball

Zion Griffin hit a 3-pointer with 2:30 remaining in the game to tie the game at 57-57 on Saturday afternoon.  Tennessee State would double up Eastern Illinois scoring total in the final minutes as the Tigers handed the Panthers a heartbreaking 65-61 loss at First Mid Court at Lantz Arena.
 
EIU, which played without its two leading scorers on the season, got a 17-point performance from Caleb Donaldson as the junior guard had his third straight double figure scoring game. 
 
Both teams struggled to muster good offense throughout the game as EIU shot 37 percent from the field while TSU was just slightly better at 38 percent.
 
The difference was the connection from 3-point range as TSU was 10-of-32 including Griffin's late 3-pointer as he led all scorers with 23 points going 5-of-9 from 3-point range.
 
EIU was just 2-of-11 from 3-point range with Cameron Haffner knocking down both 3-pointers for the Panthers to finish with 12 points. He came up just shy of a double-double collecting nine rebounds.
 
EIU did win the battle on the glass for the evening with a 43-39 advantage.  Nick Ellington had seven rebounds off the bench. 
 
Marcus Fitzgerald joined Griffin in double figures for TSU finishing with 11 points. 
 
TSU led 28-25 at the half leading by as many as eight points in the early minutes of the first half.   TSU improved to 14-11 overall, 6-6 in the OVC.
 
EIU led by nine points with just over 13 minutes to play in the game on a Haffner 3-pointer putting EIU up 40-31 at the time.  EIU dropped to 7-18 overall, 3-9 in the OVC.

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