Jake Verhagen knows how to celebrate a birthday.

And the Eastern men’s basketball team gave him the perfect present on his 19th birthday with a 76-70 win over Ohio Valley Conference rival Southern Illinois-Edwardsville to move into second place in the west division and improve to 5-5 in conference play.

With 3:54 remaining, Verhagen, who was in for just the second time all game, made a 3-pointer to cut the Eastern deficit to 63-62 Saturday afternoon in Lantz Arena.

“When I put him in, I was hoping he would get an open look and knock one in,” Eastern coach Jay Spoonhour said.

At that time, Verhagen had been sitting on the bench for the last eight minutes of the game, but the lack of action Verhagen saw did not change his mindset.

“Going into a game like that, with the crowd like that, you’re ready right away,” Verhagen said. “No matter how long you’ve been sitting, you need to be ready to make a play, help your team out.”

On the ensuing possession, Edwardsville’s Donivine Stewart missed a jumper with Sherman Blanford getting the defensive rebound for Eastern.

Once again, Verhagen was at the top of the 3-point line where he received the ball from Zach Dickerson with 3:05 left to play.

“I knew when he was open that he was going to knock it down,” Eastern forward Sherman Blanford said. “I saw the ball get swung to him, I said, ‘oh, yeah that’s going in.’”

Blanford was right.

With another wide open look, Verhagen took the shot and made just his second attempt of the night — only this time giving the Panthers a 65-63 lead.

“The two 3s — bang, bang — it’s a huge deal,” Spoonhour said.

Verhagen gave the Panthers their first lead since 3:16 in the first half. But before his lategame heroics, the Eastern forward was not making his head coach as happy.

Before Verhagen attempted either shot, Edwardsville had three shot attempts and two offensive rebounds in one 26-second possession.

The Cougars’ Ray Lester missed a jump shot and battled Verhagen for his own rebound.

Beating out Verhagen, Lester tipped in his own miss and extended the Cougars lead to four points with 4:06 remaining.

On the way back down the court, Spoonhour told Verhagen that he needed to be tougher, something the 6-foot-6, 200-pound freshman clearly took into consideration.

“As he was coming down (the court), I just told him, ‘you need to grow up and grab that ball,’” Spoonhour said. “He just nods and then makes the shot. I guess that’s his way of growing up.”

But Verhagen considers Spoonhour giving him the opportunity to go in and make a play somewhat of a birthday present, whether his head coach knew it or not.

If that were the case, it could be said that Verhagen not only made the most of his birthday present, but also returned the favor to his coach.

“I would have to say this is the No. 1 birthday,” Verhagen said. “We got the win, my parents came down. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Anthony Catezone can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].