Eastern will look to increase its winning streak to three and earn its first road victory at Terre Haute, Ind. in over a decade.

“Road wins have a tendency to toughen a team because you can’t use the adrenaline of the home crowd,” head coach Rick Samuels said.

The Panthers’ (3-3) last win at the Hulman Center came in the opening game of the 1989-90 season where Eastern squeaked by with a 60-58 result. In the last 20 years, Eastern is 1-7 at Indiana State.

This year’s version of the Sycamores (2-3) have struggled to score against some middle-tier competition. Indiana State is averaging 59 points per game against teams with an average RPI ranking of 225.

“This is a completely different Indiana State team from the last couple of years,” Samuels said. “They have lost some key ingredients from those strong teams.”

Indiana State is led by freshman guard David Moss who is averaging 13 points per game, but is one of two Sycamores averaging double-digit point outputs.

“(Indiana State) is getting great point production from their very athletic freshman,” Samuels said.

Indiana State runs a motion offense that is similar to Eastern but will try to feed the ball into 6-foot-9 center Brian Giesen who is averaging nine points per game.

“He’s trying to take advantage of his last season and is having a solid senior season,” Samuels said.

Eastern senior preseason Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year Henry Domercant will lead the Panthers with his 26.7 points per game which is fifth in the nation, but has recently been getting the help from fellow guard J.R. Reynolds, who is seventh in the conference in scoring with 16.7 points per game.

“We are working on continuity with our offense every day, but we need to get guys to come off the bench to play supportive roles and give us some scoring,” Samuels said.

The injury bug has grabbed a key Panther starter in junior forward Jesse Mackinson who has suffered a broken thumb. Mackinson has played three games with a splint on his right thumb but has been rendered ineffective since the injury.

“We want him to continue playing, but he is having trouble grasping the ball and it’s also affected his scoring,” Samuels said.

Indiana State will host Butler on Friday and Samuels says that lack of preparation on their part as an advantage for his team.

“It may help us because they will have to prepare much differently for us than Butler,” Samuels said. “However, they prepare for us every day in practice because we are so similar.”