Chris Olivier wanted to send Sherman Blanford out in good fashion.

So on Senior Night, when the Eastern men’s basketball team beat Chicago State 84-62 in a non-conference game Monday night, Olivier, the sophomore, wanted to make sure he did exactly that for Blanford, the lone senior.

“With it being his last go-around, I just wanted to send him off in good fashion,” Olivier said. “That was my personal mindset. He’s our leader, our captain; so I just gave everything I had.”

Olivier tied his career high with 20 points on a near impeccable 8-of-10 shooting, while also hauling in four rebounds.

While Olivier accomplished his goal in honoring Blanford appropriately in his last game in Lantz Arena, Blanford, meanwhile, accomplished his goal as well.

“We got the ‘W’ for my last home game — that was my goal,” Blanford said.

Olivier scored 13 points in the first half coming off of the bench, where he also collected all of his four rebounds.

“He gets some decent buckets and a lot of the rebounds I miss out on most of the time,” Blanford said. “We need that off the bench.”

Olivier also scored seven of the Panthers’ first 14 points, as they jumped out to a 14-2 lead during the first six minutes of the game. The Panthers opened the game shooting 5-of-7 in the opening six minutes, while the Cougars began just 1-of-10 from the field.

Eastern shot a season-high 61.7 percent from the field, despite 5-of-15 from the 3-point line.

“They play trap defense every play, so there’s going to be times when you have a choice on which shot to take and took shots that allowed us to shoot 61 percent.,” Eastern coach Jay Spoonhour said.

Chicago State shot 36.2 percent from the field and just 29 percent in the first half.

But the Cougars used an 8-2 run to cut the game to a 33-25 deficit with 2:27 left in the first half.

“We got into trouble when we were passive,” Spoonhour said. “We waited back, now here they come at you. You can’t be passive against a team like that.”

Eastern answered with a 7-1 run to close out the half and take 40-25 lead into halftime.

As for Blanford, he recorded his routine double-double performance — the 13th of his career — with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

“That’s a quarter of his games he has gotten a double-double in,” Spoonhour said of Blanford, who has played in 60 career games as a Panther.

Spoonhour said Eastern was able to ride Blanford throughout the technical part of the game.

“When they pressed us, we threw it ahead to him and he’s a forward that is able to put it on the floor,” Spoonhour said. “He was huge — more so than the numbers show — by driving and going into attack mode.”

Blanford attacked for 32 minutes whit a 5-of-9 shooting-performance in his last home game as a Panther.

As the senior was subbed out, he walked off the court for the final time with one minute remaining in the game.

A chant of “Thank you, Sherman” showered down from the student section in Lantz Arena, while teammates and coaches congratulated him.

“It couldn’t have felt better,” Blanford said. “A lot of people came to see the effort I put in. it just feels great to be noticed and appreciated.”

But as good as it felt for Blanford, Spoonhour said the Panthers’ only senior is not finished yet. After all, Eastern still has at least one more important game as the season finale against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville.

Eastern, the No. 8 seed at 6-9 in the Ohio Valley Conference, will play Edwardsville, the No. 6 seed at 7-7 in OVC play, with a possible tournament berth on the line.

“He isn’t gone yet,” Sponnhour said. “He still has another couple weeks left in him. We’ll say goodbye later. Right now, it’s just good job.”

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