Sunday, February 17, 2008 11:07 PM CST
Panthers cool off quickly at Murray State
After scoring 90 points Thursday, EIU held to just 56 in defeat
BY BRIAN NIELSEN Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
MURRAY, Ky. – When Jake Byrne contrasted teams, he was not referring to a Southeast Missouri team giving away baskets like it is May Day in its descent down the Ohio Valley Conference standings and then Murray State emphasized defense in its bid for a championship.
No, the senior forward was just talking about his own Eastern Illinois basketball team that managed just 22 first-half points on its way to Saturday’s 67-56 loss at Murray State, putting a damper on a week that featured its best offensive game in years when the Panthers beat Southeast Missouri 90-70 on Thursday.
“Those were two different teams that played Thursday and Saturday,” Byrne said. “Thursday we came out with a lot of energy and played well. I don’t think it was one thing differently that (Murray State) did. It was us.”
Coach Mike Miller also pointed to his own Panthers’ deficiencies as they fell to 5-21, with three games remaining tying the 6-21 records in both 2003-04 and 2005-06 for the most losses in a season in program history.
They fell into a tie for last in the OVC with next week’s opponent Jacksonville State at 4-14 overall in this game, in which Eastern trailed by as many as 14 points late in the first half and 18 in the second. They woke up some of Murray State’s announced 3,308 Regional Special Events Center crowd by getting within eight in the last four minutes and then had the comeback fall short.
“I think we were kind of playing catch up from the beginning,” Miller said. “We didn’t feel we did the things we were focused on, that we wanted to do. We didn’t feel we played to an identity. I just didn’t think we did enough to challenge them.”
One of the few consistencies from a Thursday to Saturday was Byrne, who hit seven of 10 shots from the field and scored 16 points against Murray State after his season-high 18 points Thursday at SEMO.
On Thursday Byrne led five double-figure EIU scorers in the Panthers’ highest scoring game since a 96-91 overtime win at Tennessee-Martin in 2005 and most points in regulation since a 96-67 win over Tennessee State in 2003.
But then the Panthers faced Murray State where defense is more than just a rumor compared to the Southeast Missouri team that was burned again Saturday losing to Tennessee-Martin 98-85.
On Saturday no other Panther had more than Gino Myers-Kyles’ eight points scored off the bench.
Murray State, now 16-10 and 12-6 for second place in the OVC, helped make sure of that in avenging an 83-80 overtime Jan. 3 loss at Eastern.
“We wanted to limit (Tyler) Laser and (Julio) Anthony and we did a good job on them,” Racers coach Billy Kennedy said. “Jake Byrne had a good game against us. He hurt us with his physicalness.”
Laser, who came off the bench for a freshman season high 27 points to stun the Racers last month, managed just three points on 1-for-6 shooting in the rematch.
The 6-foot-8 Byrne did not take all the credit for two of his best games of his career Thursday and Saturday.
“It’s not necessarily me,” he said. “It’s our team. They’re coming out on Julio and Bam (Jon’Tee Willhite) and that opens things up for me. Our guards are doing a good job getting the ball to me.”
But the Panthers were not doing enough to combat the 22-point game by Murray State’s senior Bruce Carter.
Carter had 13 points in the first half, which had the Racers score seven straight points to double a seven-point lead at 34-20 with 1:54 left in the first half, which ended with the Racers holding a 17-8 rebounding advantage and a 34-22 lead.
The Murray Stat lead grew to 47-29 with 11:09 remaining.
“It was definitely disappointing that we came out and put ourselves in that position,” Byrne said. “We can’t put ourselves in a hole like that.”
That hole was too much although the Panthers did rally to trail just 57-49 when Byrne had a shot goal tended while he was fouled leading to a three-point play with 3:53 remaining.
But Carter added a basket inside and Murray State made eight of 10 free throws in the last 3:09, getting an offensive rebound on one of the misses.
“We got ourselves back into it and didn’t do what we needed to do,” Miller said.
Eastern’s last three games of the season are at home starting with a 7 p.m. Saturday non-conference ESPNU Blockbuster game against Evansville.
Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
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