Senior guard Zion Fruster finished at the rim to give the Panthers (4-8) a 6-5 lead with 17:33 remaining in the first half.
The team never let go of this lead, as they were able to roll through East-West University with a 110-56 victory on Monday afternoon at Groniger Arena.
Leading the way for the Panther’s was redshirt senior guard Andre Washington, who finished the game with 24 points, three assists and three rebounds.
“Games like this we try to just better ourselves, just try to improve on the things we need to work on,” Washington said. “We took pride in mostly the defensive end, just trying to get better on defense.”
East-West lost to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville earlier this season, a team the Panthers just took down in overtime this past Thursday, with a final score of 119-50.
The team knew the game most likely wouldn’t be competitive coming into today. They took it as a learning experince.
“We knew we were better than them,” redshirt junior Preston Turner said. “We just didn’t want to play to the level of our competition. We wanted to build on the good one we had against SIUE last game. Try to get better as a team and not focus on our competition.”
Turner ended the game with 18 points, four assists and four rebounds.
It was important to the Panthers to not only use this game to improve as a team, but to use this game to build experience for players who don’t get as much playing time.
Freshman Marcus Blackwell was one of the players who saw increased playing time for Eastern Illinois. In 20 minutes of action, he finished the game with eight points, six rebounds and five assists.
“Confidence is such a fickle thing,” head coach Marty Simmons said. “You get that from on-the-job training, having success with people in the stands and playing against your opponent. I think it goes a long way.”
The team gets a 10-game break after this game for the holiday season. They won’t resume action until New Year’s Day against SEMO.
“The players are going to love it,” Simmons said. “They get the opportunity to go home and spend quality time with their families.”
Simmons isn’t as big of a fan of the break as the players are. He’s ready to hit the ground running.
“I like to get after it in practice. I like to work. So we’ll be anxiously awaiting when these guys come back on [January 27],” Simmons said.
The team resumes conference play when they return and will have a six-game stretch of Ohio Valley Conference games.
“[The break] is definitely important,” Washington said. “It’s good to see our families, but [we have] four days off, so we gotta make sure we stay in the gym, stay locked in and get ready for this long stretch of conference play.
Eastern’s next game against SEMO is set to tip off at 7:30 p.m.
