Eastern Illinois football hosting Charleston Southern in final home game
CHARLESTON — Eastern Illinois will play its final home game of the season on Saturday against the southernmost school in the Big South-OVC in Charleston Southern.
This will be the first meeting between the two schools, which have both suffered a handful of close loses that have sent both of them at the bottom of the conference standings. EIU (2-8, 1-5 conference) is coming off a road loss at Gardner-Webb while Charleston Southern (1-9, 0-7 conference) lost its final home game to UT Martin. The Panthers will honor 27 members of this year's senior class prior to the start of the contest.
Cooper Willman landed himself in the record books on Saturday with a school record 291 yards receiving on 11 catches with three touchdowns. He had just two catches for 39 yards at halftime. The 291 yards is the most in the FCS this season and is the record of the two-year old Big South OVC Football Association.
Willman broke the record set by Erik Lora (269) during the 2012 season and during the game became the 35th player in school history with more than 1,000 receiving yards in his career. Willman has now has 55 receptions for 853 yards and eight touchdowns.
Quarterback Pierce Holley passed for more than 300 yards for the sixth straight week, finishing with 458 yards at Gardner-Webb. It was the sixth-most passing yards in a game by a Panthers quarterback. Holley has 2,828 yards passing and is on the verge of becoming just the fourth quarterback in program history to pass for 3,000 yards in a season, joining Sean Payton, Tony Romo and Jimmy Garoppolo (combined six times among those three).
CJ Nelson had his best day in a Panthers uniform, finishing with 101 yards on five catches with a touchdown. Nelson has appeared in nine games this season with two starts at Tennessee State and at Gardner-Webb. He has 17 receptions for 250 yards, a 14.7 yards per catch average.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
EIU falls to Illini
CHAMPAIGN — Eastern Illinois fell 84-37 against No. 23 Illinois on Thursday night at State Farm Center in Champaign. The Panthers fell to 12-6 all-time against Illinois.
Illinois began the first half strong after a 12-2 run led by Kendall Bostic and Adalia Mckenzie allowed the Illini to jump out to an early first-quarter lead.
Tiny Lewis led the Panther's first-half offensive efforts, knocking down one of three attempts from behind the arc while heading into the break as the Panther's leading scorer with five points. The Illini remained in control throughout the second half, opening the third quarter on a 20-8 run to further extend their lead. Jasmine Brown-Haggar led the Illinois offense, finishing the night with 23 points on 10-of-15 shooting.
Jayda Johnston finished the night as the Panther's leading scorer logging eight points in 16 minutes.
The Panthers play at Minnesota at 7 p.m., Nov. 20.
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Two high school players added
Eastern Illinois men's basketball signed two high school players to next season's roster, Luke Beickman and Markus Blackwell.
Beickman (6'2, 180) is from Owensboro, Ky., where he earned first team All-Region honors at Owensboro Catholic last season. He was named the Daviess County Player of the Year, averaging 20.6 points.
Blackwell (6'1, 180) is from Detroit, Mich., where he has been a three time first-team All-Conference selection at Warren Lincoln. As a junior, he was named the conference player of the year with 23.9 points, 6.2 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game leading his team to its first Michigan DII State Championship.
