Despite losing 77-50 to Southern Illinois Edwardsville, Eastern clinched the eighth and final spot to get in the men’s basketball championship Saturday afternoon at First Community Arena in Edwardsville. 

With the help of Southeast Missouri beating Tennessee Tech 89-73, the Panthers will head to the tournament in Evansville, Indiana.

“It means everything, that was a goal from this summer,” head coach Marty Simmons said. “They don’t give you tournaments, and three teams don’t make it. You have to earn your way in and there’s been a lot of peaks and valleys.”

Eastern heads back for the tournament for the first time since the 2023-2024 season.  This is Simmons second tournament appearance during his tenure that began in 2021.

The Panthers will have a rematch against SIUE in the opening round.

“We got to watch film and learn from it. It is not going to be easy to watch, they dominated us.” Simmons said. 
”Competitive players relish the opportunity for another chance and I think we got some guys in our locker room that are competitive guys and we’ll see what happens.”

SIUE (19-12, 12-8) outscored Eastern (12-19, 8-12) by 18 points in the second half. Simmons said the offense was not very good during the game. 

The Panthers shot 9-for-26 for 34% from the field and 1-for-8 from beyond the arc for 12% in the second half.

SIUE on the other hand shot the ball extremely well. The Cougars shot 17-for-27 from the field for 63% and 6-for-11 from three for 45%.

 “I didn’t think we worked very hard to get good shots, I didn’t think we played together on the offensive end 48 hours after one of our biggest wins of the year,” Simmons said. 

Senior guard Zion Fruster led Eastern with 11 points on 3-of-6 shooting. 

Coming off a career-high 30 points against Lindenwood, graduate forward Kooper Jacobi shot 3-for-13 from the field and 1-for-7 from three.

Eastern turned the ball over 12 times. During OVC play, the Panthers averaged 11 per game.

“When they were physical, it took us out of things,” Simmons said.  “We didn’t set up cuts, didn’t screen bodies. We didn’t do the things that we did so well the other night over at Lindenwood.” 

Eastern entered a 3-2 zone in the second half after trailing 35-26 at halftime

“We were struggling to stop them. Just trying to change the flow of the game,” Simmons said. “I thought early on it did a good job, but they are a good team, well coached and they adapted and adjusted.” 

SIUE also went on a 15-0 run during the second half that ballooned the lead to 25. 

The Cougars had three players in double figures: center Arnias Sakenias with 16 points, guards King with 15 points and Jordan Pickett with 10. 

SIUE outrebounded Eastern 34-25.

The Panthers were down 11-2 five minutes into the game and could not gain enough momentum to take the lead. 

Eastern cut the lead down to five with four minutes left in the first half, but the Cougars quickly got the lead back up to 10 two minutes later.

The Panthers ended the half shooting 9-of-21 from the field for 42% and 2-of-11 from three for 18%.

Eastern will travel to Evansville, Indiana, to face SIUE in the first round of the OVC men’s basketball championship Wednesday. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. 

Cameron Thomas can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].