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Monday, January 1, 2007 10:13 PM CST
Panthers have own ‘bowl’ game tonight
BY BRIAN NIELSEN,Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON -- Big-game crowd or mostly empty Lantz Arena, Eastern Illinois’ basketball team is facing crunch time.
Students are still gone on holiday break and community members may consider tonight a time to watch the Orange Bowl or just recover from holidays, but unlike a Jan. 2 of the past, Eastern is now playing its sixth Ohio Valley Conference game of the basketball season.
Considering it has already lost two OVC home games during the holiday break to fall to 1-4, the Panthers can hardly afford many more Lantz losses n maybe even one against perennial power Murray State -- and expect to avoid being one of the three teams left out of the OVC’s eight-team tournament for a second straight year.
“This is a very critical stage for our team right now,” Eastern coach Mike Miller said. “The ultimate goal is to be one of the last teams playing. We want to have an input on the league. It’s extremely important to get to playing well. Unless we get something started soon, we’re going to be in a critical position.”
Starting this three-game week EIU, 5-9 overall, is tied for the bottom with Thursday’s road opponent Southeast Missouri at 1-4 in the Ohio Valley.
Having had its 15-game home-court winning streak snapped in its last outing Dec. 21 against league-leading Samford, Murray State at 3-2 is not in the best shape to repeat as OVC champion as the Racers bring a 5-8 record into today’s 7:35 p.m. game at Lantz.
Among Murray State’s question marks is the status of OVC Preseason Player of the Year Shawn Witherspoon, whose streak of 43 straight starts ended when he was sidelined by a lingering foot injury against Samford.
A Murray State sports information assistant said things were day-to-day for Witherspoon, averaging 9.8 points and 5.3 rebounds this season.
Having already played NCAA Division I’s earliest conference game of the season and the earliest OVC game in league history last Nov. 25, Eastern and Murray State are most likely playing the earliest season rematch the conference has seen.
Each team has made its changes since that Thanksgiving weekend meeting, and we are talking more than just Eastern adding wide receiver Ryan Voss as a so-far seldom-used basketball reserve after playing in the NCAA Division I-AA football playoffs the day the basketball teams met the first time.
Since then Murray State has had 6-foot-1 guard Kevin Thomas, a Compton Community College transfer, cleared by medical personnel to play and 6-4 guard Ray George certified by the NCAA after transferring from Georgia Perimeter.
Both have now played two games as Thomas scored 12 points in his season debut when Murray State edged Jacksonville State 72-71 in overtime and George scored 10 points in the Racers’ loss to Samford.
“It gives them some depth,” Miller said. “When you add guys it gives them more depth for the way they want to play. Thomas was three of five from 3 against Jacksonville State and has put up 13 shots in the little he has played (17 minutes) so he’s an aggressive player offensively.”
As for Eastern’s progression, 6-8 freshman Bobby Jolliff took just one shot in five minutes of playing time in the Panthers’ game and Murray State and played in just eight of the first 12 games before being inserted into the starting lineup when EIU played host to Western Illinois.
The Indiana high school Class 1A state championship game blocked shot record holder had 15 points and seven rebounds when the Panthers snapped three-game losing streak to beat Western 76-56 before scoring four points in 23 minutes when starting in last week’s 63-51 non-conference loss at Eastern Michigan.
Miller on Monday said he had not determined tonight’s starting lineup which the past two games has had 9.8-point-per-game-scorer and 5.6-rebounding leader Bobby Catchings coming off the bench.
“We’ll probably shake it up a little bit,” the EIU coach said. “The starters just set the tone for the game. It’s not a status thing to start. I think that’s kind of the trend in the conference. Sometimes you have to shake things up.”
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Angie Miley wrote on Jul 17, 2006 8:05 PM: