The football team and both basketball teams will be on the road as well as at home to play games in six of the nine days of Thanksgiving break.

The Eastern football team (2-8) will kick off the break as they travel down to Martin, Tenn., where they will play their last game of the season at UT Martin on Sat., Nov. 19 at 2 p.m.

UT Martin (6-4) is the second-best team in the Ohio Valley Conference, and they are currently ranked no. 25 on the NCAA FCS top 25 teams in the country.

The Panthers score about 21.4 points per game and rush for about 153.1 yards per game.

Running back Markenzy Pierre leads in rushing as he averages 45.9 per game. Wide receiver Nile Hill leads in receiving as he has 25 catches and averages 22.6 yards per game.

The team has 13 interceptions on the season by seven different players.

Safety Jordan Vincent leads in tackling on defense with 78 total tackles and linebackers Colin Bohanek, Elijawah Tolbert, and Nick Coates are right behind him with 67, 66, and 64 respectively.

Defensive linemen Joel Barrows and Cameron Leach and defensive end Jordan Miles all have three sacks each on the season.

Eastern football is currently ranked 6th in the OVC.

The EIU men’s and women’s basketball teams will also have games over the Thanksgiving break next week.

EIU women’s basketball (3-0) will begin Thanksgiving break with a game against Loyola Chicago (1-1) at home on Sun., Nov. 20 at 2 p.m. They will then travel up to Chicago State (0-2) for an evening game on Tues., Nov. 22.

The Panthers are currently scoring 64.5 points per game and average 43 rebounds per game.

Guard Lariah Washington averages 16 points per game and forward Macy McGlone is averaging 10.

McGlone and senior forward Morgan Litwiller are leading the team in rebounds as McGlone averages 8 per game and Litwiller averages 8.5.

The women’s team is currently in 1st place in the OVC.

While the women’s team has a pair of matches before the Thanksgiving holiday, the men’s team (0-3) will have a game on Mon., Nov. 21 as they host Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (2-1) at noon. After the holiday, they will travel to Ohio for the Ohio University MTE tournament over the weekend where they will face Ohio University (1-1) Friday at 1 p.m. and Alabama State (0-3) Saturday at 1 p.m.

The team is averaging 55.3 points per game, 33 rebounds per game, and 10.3 steals per game.

Guard Kinyon Hodges is currently the team’s scoring leader averaging 12.7 points per game. Guard Yaakema Rose is leading the team with 5.3 rebounds per game. Rose and forward Sincere Malone are leading the team with 2.3 steals per game.

The men’s team is currently in 10th place in the OVC.

As December begins, football’s and volleyball’s seasons will be over, but basketball, swimming, and indoor track will be in full force for the coming months.

Kate Stevens can be reached at 581-2812 or kestevens2@eiu.edu