The men’s basketball team took its third straight win Saturday night against Augustana College 87-71, but the Panthers still struggled to find cohesiveness on the court.

“We’re not too happy, not too sad,” junior guard Craig Lewis said. “We felt we didn’t play to the best of our ability tonight, but they’re a good team and you take what you can get. Overall, we’re satisfied with the win, but we saw a lot of things we need to work on.”

While Eastern (4-3) was up against a Division III opponent, the Vikings (1-2) didn’t give the Panthers an easy night.

“There’s a general tendency because they’re Division III and we should win by 40, but that doesn’t always happen,” head coach Rick Samuels said. “They played hard – they played well.”

Vikings guard Drew Carstens finished with 23 points to lead Augustana with center Adam Rue and guard Mike Nee each contributing 10 points. Carstens had been averaging 27.5 points per game prior to Saturday.

“I don’t know if holding him to 23 was a great accomplishment,” Samuels said. “He’s an intelligent player and we have to give him credit. He’s a kid that can get the most out of his abilities.”

Carstens also went to the line more times than any player in the game, taking advantage with a perfect 9-for-9 at the charity stripe.

“He’s very disciplined,” Lewis said of Carstens. “We just fouled him too much and he got to the line a lot.”

Augustana also had been shooting 50 percent from the three-point arc, but the Panthers worked to hold that to just 14 percent Saturday night.

“Our intent was really to crowd them and take away their three,” Samuels said. “We did that, so we’ve got to be able to do that, and still stop the dribble penetration.”

Junior forward Henry Domercant continued to lead Eastern in scoring with 25 points, finishing 9-for-16 in field goals and finished with five threes.

Sophomore guard Chris Herrera had the first collegiate start of his career, scoring 10 points for the Panthers, while junior guard J.R. Reynolds came off the bench to score 19 points in 20 minutes of play.

“Chris had 10 points and was pretty solid,” Samuels said. “I hope as he continues to settle in with that role that he’ll be more consistent. We need to continue to develop that position.”

While the scoring continues to spread throughout the lineup, mistakes are still occurring on the court.

“What we really have to work on are the silly little mistakes,” Samuels said. “When we’re in a hurry and we’re impatient, we have turnovers. We had 40, and need to cut down on those things.

We’re not going to be like last year’s team. Last year’s team was able to do some things that we’re not going to be able to do. We’re not that cohesive, but we can scrap and bite and get some things done.”

Eastern has a mid-week game against Evansville Wednesday for the Panther’s first road game since Thanksgiving break.

“Going into Evansville is going to be a real test for us,” Reynolds said. “We haven’t been playing well as a team, but hopefully at Evansville we can come together and everything will start to click. Then we can take it from there.”