A career-day for junior forward Sherman Blanford propelled the Eastern men’s basketball team to a 77-67 win over Austin Peay, snapping its 12-game losing streak.

Blanford had four career-highs with 19 points, 10 rebounds (seven on offense), six assists and four steals in the winning effort.

“(Blanford) played unbelievably good tonight,” head coach Jay Spoonhour said. “The offensive rebounds speak for themselves, and he is as good of a passer as we have on this team. He is just capable of doing so many things.”

Eastern moves to 4-16 overall and 1-6 in the Ohio Valley Conference. Austin Peay falls to 5-15 overall and 1-5 in conference play.

“It feels good because it’s hard to compete day in and day out and not see results,” Spoonhour said. “These guys come to practice with the right mindset, and tonight they did just that. They came out and concentrated, made good plays.”

Spoonhour said the players were able to coach themselves throughout the game, especially when the Panthers’, once commanding a 21-point lead, dwindled to as little as eight points late in the second half.

“Something that you need is for players to look at each other and communicate,” he said. “(Austin Peay) started to press us in the second half and we were forced to play faster, but the players handled it and capitalized.”

A large part of Eastern’s production came from the rebounding battle that it won 33-21; sixteen of those rebounds were on the offensive end.

Blanford led the Panthers with 10 total rebounds and seven offensive rebounds.

Spoonhour said the Panthers were missing several open shots at times, which can demoralize a team; but the fact that they were able to battle for the offensive rebound aggravated the Governors.

“Every (offensive rebound) is a new possession,” he said. “That aggravates opponents because they have to guard for an entirely new shot clock on defense.”

The 16 offensive rebounds translated into 16 second chance points for the Panthers compared to the Governors’ nine second chance points.

Eastern scored a season-high 77 points behind three players reaching double-digits.

Along with Blanford’s 19, sophomore forward Josh Piper led the Panthers with 20 points, and senior guard Taylor Jones registered 14 points.

“We did a good job in the first half playing our game, slowing the pace down to only 31 possessions,” Spoonhour said.

The coach said the offense did as good of a job as he has seen it when cutting to the basket and making early 3-pointers.

Even though the offense had its season-high in points, Spoonhour said he was especially pleased with the defensive performance the Panthers showed in the first half, holding Austin Peay to just 25 points.

The Governors’ standout transfer guard Travis Betran led the OVC in scoring in conference-only contests with 24.8 points per game before facing the Panthers.

But the Panthers’ defense managed to hold him to four points in the first half, and 14 for the game.

Betran was Austin Peay’s leading scorer as no player made more than one field goal in the first half.

Eastern will look to have only its second win streak of the season as it hosts Tennessee-Martin at 7 p.m. Thursday in Lantz Arenza.

Anthony Catezone can be reached at 581-2812 or ajcatezone@eiu.edu.