The Eastern men’s basketball team kept it close against Evansville on Wednesday night in Evansville, Ind., but for the second straight game was not able to battle back in the second half as the Panthers lost 80-76.

The Panthers trimmed the Purple Aces’ lead to 74-71 with 39 seconds left, but junior guard T.J. Marion was called for palming the ball to give Evansville possession.

On the ensuing inbounds play, Eastern junior center Ousmane Cisse was called for an intentional foul on Evansville freshman forward James Haarsma. Haarsma hit both free throws to put the Purple Aces ahead five points.

Marion responded with two free throws, but Evansville senior guard Jason Holinsinger hit two more free throws on Evansville’s next possession.

Marion scored 16 of the Panthers’ last 21 points, as they trailed between two and six points throughout the last 10 minutes of the game. He finished with a team-high 27 points in addition to six assists and five rebounds.

“T.J. was the man tonight,” Eastern coach Mike Miller said in his postgame radio show. “When things got tough, he took it to the basket. That’s a big part of our game. We have to have more guys do it.”

The Panthers (2-6) trailed by as many as 10 points in the first half after the Purple Aces (6-1) came out to a commanding 12-2 lead, but Eastern was able to battle back to cut the lead to 45-37 to end the first half.

Evansville lead by as many as 12 in the second half, but Eastern cut into the lead with a 10-point run to shorten the lead to 53-51 with 14 minutes, 4 seconds remaining.

The Panthers trailed by between three and six for the remainder of the game, but were never able to usurp the lead from Evansville.

Miller said he thought his team had a good effort, but said he thinks the team needs to execute better.

“Playing hard is where it starts and we played with energy, but we didn’t get many easy baskets,” Miller said.

He said the Panthers need more guys to step up in the future like Marion.

He also said Eastern needs to do a better job breaking free and setting screens on offense.

Miller said he was disappointed with the offense in that they were not screening well, cutting well and making easy plays.

Junior guard Romain Martin finished with 26 points for the Panthers, while senior forward Billy Parrish had seven points to go with nine rebounds.

Cisse led the team with 11 rebounds, but he scored just two points.

For the second consecutive game, the Panthers surrendered more than 30 points to an opposing player. On Saturday Eastern allowed Austin Peay senior forward Drake Reed to score 37 points in an 81-73 loss to Austin Peay.

Wednesday, Holsinger dropped 31 points on the Panthers.

Eastern will return to action at 7 p.m. Saturday against Western Illinois at Lantz Arena.

Dan Cusack can be reached at 581-7944 or at dscusack@eiu.edu.

Junior guard T.J. Marion drives Austin Peay’s Caleb Brown during the Dec. 6 game in Lantz Arena. Marion had 27 points and six rebounds in an 80-76 loss to Evansville Wednesday in Evansville, Ind.

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