The Eastern men’s basketball team lost its third straight game Wednesday night in Lantz Arena, falling to Tennessee Martin 76-60.

The Panthers were able to limit the nation’s second leading scorer, Tennessee Martin senior guard Lester Hudson, to only 22 points – seven below his season average – but sophomore guard Marquis Weddle scorched Eastern for 25 as the Skyhawks won their 11th game in a row.

“(Eastern head coach Mike Miller) told us, and we knew, we were not going to hold Hudson under 20, he’s been doing it all season,” junior guard Romain Martin said. “We tried to play him hard and physical, but they had other guys step up and play pretty well.”

The Panthers (11-15, 8-8 OVC) trailed 29-24 at half in a seesaw battle that saw the lead change five times. Eastern started the second half on a 5-0 run tying the score up at 29-29, but the Skyhawks’ offense was too much for the Panthers for the remainder of the game.

Tennessee Martin (19-6, 12-3 OVC) was able to stretch the lead to six after a pair of free throws by sophomore guard Benzor Simmons with 14:01 remaining in the half after a six-point run.

The Skyhawks extended the lead to 13 with a 21-8 run with 4:40 remaining after Weddle hit a 3-pointer for his 25th point of the game.

Miller said the Skyhawks did a good job executing and taking advantage of mistakes Eastern made.

“They came out in the second half and brought it to another gear,” Miller said. “We came out early and went on a little run, but we made too many mistakes. We had no threat on offense though, we couldn’t get anything going.”

The Skyhawks shot 68 percent (15-22) from the field in the second half.

Martin said the Panthers’ inability to execute on offense was the reason they did not win. He said they hesitated on shots and cuts.

Martin led the Panthers with 27 points and four rebounds. Junior center Ousmane Cisse led the team with 11 rebounds and added 10 points.

In addition to 22 points, Hudson had nine rebounds and six assists. Weddle finished with four rebounds and one assist.

With the loss, Eastern remains in sixth place in the conference with an 8-8 record. The Panthers are still behind Eastern Kentucky (10-6), who defeated first place Morehead State 74-40 Wednesday night.

Eastern’s next game will be for the ESPNU BrackBuster when they take on Western Michigan at 1 p.m. Saturday in Kalamazoo, Mich.

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

Junior guard Dewayne Wright, Jr. tries to move around a UT Martin player during the men’s Senior Night game in Lantz Arena on Wednesday night. (Alycia Rockey/The Daily Eastern News)

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