The Eastern men’s basketball team learned on Monday who it will face for the ESPN Bracketbuster game.

Northern Illinois (8-12, 4-4 in the Mid-American Conference) will come to Charleston to compete against the Panthers at 6 p.m. on Feb. 20 in Lantz Arena.

This will be the 85th match-up in the two programs’ history, with the Huskies leading the series 43-42.

Eastern head coach Mike Miller said he knows a little about Northern Illinois.

“We had a couple common opponents early in the year,” Miller said.

“Coach (Richardo) Patton was the head coach at Colorado when I was an assistant at Kansas State, so we obviously had to compete against his team. A number of his players we have recruited are at Northern. We are familiar with the players. They are playing well right now.”

Sanders plays well

Sophomore forward Zavier Sanders made the most of his playing time during Saturday’s 70-55 loss to Jacksonville State.

Sanders, who has played only 81 minutes this season before the game, scored six points and nabbed six rebounds.

Miller said Sanders did a good job when he was on the court.

“Sometimes, some guys get more minutes than others, and he hasn’t had a lot of minutes of late,” Miller said. “I thought he came in and gave us a real good lift there. He was efficient in making open shots and rebounded the ball, and because of that, he got a few more turns in the game.”

Miller said Sanders has been working hard in practice everyday and keeps his focus.

It is possible for Sanders to see more minutes against Southeast Missouri Saturday.

“We are really anxious this week to spend a little time on improving our game and get ready for SEMO,” Miller said. “During the latter part of the week, we will really work on us and clean up some things and get the work we need to improve.”

Long road trip ends

During the last three weeks, Eastern has been on the road for five match-ups against Ohio Valley Conference rivals, and have lost each game.

It has not been easy, as the Panthers have had to travel 2,850 miles for six of the last eight games.

Eastern will conclude its road trip at 7:30 p.m. Saturday against Southeast Missouri in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

“I was telling our guys that it really is tough but let’s really think about what it is,” Miller said. “We’re lucky we are doing what we are doing. We’re lucky to be a part of college basketball and all the people that it is important to. We just got to kind of bounce back.”

Miller said his team has been through many trials with being on a weeklong bus ride through Kentucky and getting sick on the road, but his team needs to overcome adversity.

Bob Bajek can be reached at 581-7944 or [email protected].