The Eastern men’s basketball team had a rough time finding a way to get a lead against the Southeast Missouri Redhawks.

The Redhawks defeated the Panthers on Saturday 74-68 in Lantz Arena.

There were 15 possessions in the second half that the Panthers had a chance to tie or take the lead, but could not convert.

“We did a pretty good job guarding,” said Eastern coach Jay Spoonhour. “There were some pretty huge possessions where they got offensive rebounds. (Nino) Johnson and (Tyler) Stone were really strong inside. When you look at the overall numbers it was an even game.”

Stone, Johnson and Josh Langford had a combined 10 rebounds between the three of them for the entire game.

Coming out of halftime down one, the Redhawks came out firing. Stone made a tip-in and then Jarekious Bradley dunked the ball in to give the Redhawks a six-point advantage with 17:33 left to play in the half.

After Panther guard Alex Austin hit three free throws and cut the lead down to two with about 16 minutes left in the second half, the Redhawks would score five straight points to give them a seven-point lead.

The Redhawks finally got their biggest lead of the game at eight points with three minutes left in the second half after Bradley hit a layup.

The Panthers trailed by six when Eastern forward Sherman Blanford drove to the basket and hit the layup, but Bradley drew the charge so the six-point Redhawk lead would stand.

The Redhawks would withstand the Panthers final push after Blanford’s free throws cut the lead to two with about 35 seconds left.

Southeast would make their final 5-of-6 free throws to finish the game.

Blanford had the best day shooting for the Panthers, scoring 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting and 6-of-9 from the free throw line, but said coming from a 30-point game, he did not want people to think it was getting to his head.

“That is not me at all,” he said. “I just wanted to come out and play my game and do what I can. I was missing a lot of opportunities. A lot of my players stepped up, too.”

A lot of the Panthers players did step up on Saturday, including Alex Austin, who went 3-of-7 from the 3-point line and 3-of-3 from the free throw line.

Reggie Smith, after missing Thursday’s game with an illness, had 13 points on 3-of-9 shooting and 6-of-7 from the free throw line.

But the and-one opportunities for that the Panthers surrendered to the Redhawks late in the second proved to be a difference, Spoonhour said.

“I thought we gave them too many and-ones,” he said. “Those hurt when they make it and you foul them. I thought we were pretty good in our zone and we were active.”

Eastern fell to 9-15 overall and 6-6 in the Ohio Valley Conference and the Redhawks improved to 13-12 and 4-7 in the conference.

Bob Reynolds can be reached at 581-2812 or rjreynolds@eiu.edu.