The first 10 minutes of Saturday’s game against Indiana State dictated the way the entire contest would be played.

On the first offensive play of the game, David Moss got the ball on the right wing, drove past junior guard Derik Hollyfield and finished with a dunk as he touched the backboard on the way down.

Moss said he got a good pass, and the opening in the lane was a little bigger than he expected.

“It was like the Red Sea parted,” Moss said. “I had to dunk that one.”

Unfortunately, it simply didn’t get any better for Eastern.

Moss was too much to handle for Hollyfield as he drew his second foul with 17:51 in the first half.

“Derik needs to stop getting stupid fouls and getting himself out of sync,” Eastern head coach Rick Samuels said.

Red-shirt freshman Cortez Forte came in to guard Moss as he did a few times in high school when Moss’ Thornwood played Forte’s Lyons Township.

“We ran two plays for David, the rest he found by himself,” Indiana State head coach Royce Waltman said. “Moss was hard to handle.”

Forte wasn’t able to stop Moss, but after Forte picked up two quick fouls he settled down and was able to contain Moss.

“When I played him in high school he was tough to defend then too,” Forte said. “He’s just such a good scorer.”

Waltman was impressed with his team’s defense and said defense was its strong suit against the Panthers.

The Sycamores had endless opportunities because of their tough defense and poor shooting of the Panthers.

David Roos provided some offense for the Panthers, scoring their first six points and going 3-7 from the field and 2-2 from the charity stripe in the first half.

However, Moss was not to be outdone.

“I just saw opportunities and our guys just executed,” said Moss who scored the Sycamore’s first 12 points.

Moss was 4-8 from the field, (1-2 from three-point range in the first half) and 6-6 from the free throw line. As a team, the Sycamores shot 13-25 (52 percent) from the field, while the Panthers shot just 8-30 (26.7 percent) in the first half.

Waltman knew the Sycamores needed a boost after losing their last game 86-48 to Penn.

“We played poorly against Penn,” Waltman said. “We worked hard all week and tonight we got back to playing like we know we can.”