The Eastern men’s basketball team matches up with Southern Illinois-Edwardsville for the third time this season in its first round game of the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

The Panthers and Cougars have an even record against each other on the season, both winning games on their home courts.

Eastern came out on top on Jan. 31 beating Edwardsville 57-54, while the Cougars won the second matchup by 17 points on February 14.

Eastern coach Jay Spoonhour said his team was beat convincingly by Edwardsville during the second game of its conference series.

“If we don’t play any better than we did over there, it will happen again,” he said.

The Cougars averaged seven points more than the Panthers in their two-game season series in which Eastern averaged 60 points.

Edwardsville coach Lennox Forrester said they were very fortunate in the second game against Eastern, because junior forward Chris Olivier was in his first game back after sickness.

Eastern’s junior forward Trae Anderson led the series in scoring with 15.5 points between both games while junior guard Donivine Stewart led the way for the Cougars with an average of 13.5 points in the series.

“They have a four-man in Trae Anderson who is just tough,” Forrester said. “You know hard to handle because of his size, strength and versatility.”

Anderson leads the Panthers in scoring with 13.1 points per game on 48 percent shooting, while grabbing an average of almost five rebounds.

Anderson is from St. Louis along with OVC Freshman of the Year guard Cornell Johnston and senior guard Dylan Chatman who is from Belleville in the surrounding area.

Forrester said he was able to see those Eastern players a lot during their high school and junior college careers because of the proximity of Edwardsville to St. Louis. He said his impression of the Panthers from that area has changed since seeing what they have done at Eastern.

“Part of it is the job Coach Spoonhour and his staff has done in putting them in position of having success,” Forrester said. “Sometimes when you look at players, you just never know how they’re going to pan out.”

Johnston led the OVC in three-point field goal percentage this season shooting 52-percent.  Edwardsville senior guard Kris Davis is second on the list shooting 45-percent from beyond the arc.

Edwardsville and Eastern are top-five teams in the OVC in terms of three-point field goal percentage.

The Panthers lead the conference in scoring defense allowing the fewest amount of points per game in the OVC while holding teams to the lowest field goal percentage in the league.

Tennessee State University is the only team that sits above Eastern for three-point field goal percentage defense while Edwardsville is the third best three-point shooting team in the OVC.

Forrester said the only bad thing about making it to the OVC tournament is having to play a team like Eastern in the first round.

“It’s kind of a do or die,” Forrester said. “We are kind of excited and looking forward to taking on the challenge.”

The Panthers and Cougars tip the game off at 8 p.m. Wednesday in Nashville at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium.

Jehad Abbed can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].