Early on it appeared that Eastern Illinois was going to run TSU out of the gym, as the Panthers were up by 20 in the first half. However, Tennessee State hunkered down and got back into the game. The Tigers had several opportunities down the stretch to take the lead but were never able to get over the hump, falling to the Panthers 74-70.
Eastern jumped out to a 9-0 lead before Tennessee State got on the board via a Carlous Williams jumper that made the score 9-2 at the 17:03 mark. While TSU floundered, EIU poured it on, jumping to a 26-6 lead on Preston Turner’s three pointers with 12:33 remaining in the opening half.
After the Panthers went up 20 points again on another three from Turner, Tennessee State seemed to emerge from the malaise they had started the contest in and began to cut into the Eastern advantage. Khalil London’s layup pulled the Tigers to within single digits at 33-25 with 4:53 left in the half. The Tigers got as close as 38-33 before 4 points from the Panthers to close out the half put EIU up 42-33 at halftime.
In the second half, Tennessee Staye continued to work from underneath, drawing to within a bucket a 52-50 on a Carlous Williams slam dunk. EIU pushed the lead back to 7 points at 59-52 with 9:18 remaining in the contest.
Tennessee State once again cut the Panthers’ lead to 2 points at 59-57 and 64-62 and tied the game at 64 and 66 apiece but could not claim the lead.
Dante Harris split a pair of potentially game-tying free throws, leaving the Tigers down 70-69 with 1:26 left in the game. Zion Fruster’s layup put the Panthers up 72-69 with just 0:58 in the contest.
A turnover on the subsequent TSU possession led to an intentional foul and a pair of Fruster free throws, making it 74-69 with 0:14 left.
EIU mystifyingly fouled Harris on a three-point attempt sending him to the charity stripe. However, he was able to convert just 1 of the 3 free throws, effectively snuffing out the glimmer of hope of a TSU comeback.
Khalil London led the Tigers with 23 points off the bench. Travis Harper added 18 points and Carlous Williams was the other TSU player in double figures with 11 points.
The Tigers return home to host Morehead State on January 15. Tip-off is set for 7:30 pm CST.
