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St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lee Enterprises

Monday, November 26, 2007 11:09 PM CST
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay might be Eastern's toughest foe yet

BY BRIAN NIELSEN, Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com

The task gets taller for Eastern Illinois’ basketball team with a three-game losing streak.

And we aren’t just talking literally, as the Panthers go from facing a guard-oriented Arkansas State team in which 6-foot-3 Adrian Banks’ 22 points and 5-11 Ryan Wedel’s 18 led a 74-60 win over Eastern to today’s 7 p.m. game at Wisconsin-Green Bay, where the focal point is 6-foot-9 Mike Schachtner with a 20.4 scoring average.

“Green Bay is really good,” EIU coach Mike Miller said. “They’ve already played Ohio State and have been to UMass. I would say at this point they’re the best team we’ve seen.”

UW-Green Bay stands 3-2 after beating Oakland 76-75, losing to Ohio State 91-68, beating Delaware State 70-50, losing to Massachusetts 93-78 and then on Saturday beating North Dakota State 85-77.

Eastern, 1-3 with its win coming in the opener against Harris-Stowe 85-63, has missed out on a chance at home against Loyola, which since beating the Panthers has fallen to 2-2 with losses to Western Michigan and Purdue; at Western Illinois, which is 2-3 after Sunday’s 91-52 loss at Missouri; and Arkansas State, which was 0-3 before beating the Panthers.

This was not exactly what the Panthers had in mind after winning five of their last Ohio Valley Conference games to close out the past season 10-20 with no departing seniors.

“It’s a process,” Miller said. “Every year is a new year. You have to figure out the dynamics even if you have the same people. We’ve have good stretches, just not enough. We knew this was going to be the most difficult stretch of the season.”

The stretch is to continue with this weekend’s Iowa Hawkeye Classic where Eastern first is to play a 5:45 p.m. Friday game against Rice, which is 0-3 going into tonight’s game against Arkansas-Little Rock. Iowa and Louisiana-Monroe are the other teams in the tournament which is to conclude Saturday.

For now and maybe even for the rest of the week, things hardly get any more difficult than visiting Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.

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