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GAME NOTES: The Eastern Illinois Panthers hope to continue their recent dominance over Ohio Valley Conference rival Southeast Missouri State, when the two meet tonight at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.

SEMO comes into the matchup off a 68-49 victory over SIU-Edwardsville at home on Tuesday. Prior to that win, the Redhawks were losers of three straight and six out of their previous seven contests, all against conference opponents, knocking its OVC record down to 3-8.

Eastern Illinois was defeated by Jacksonville State last Saturday by a score of 70-55. The loss put the Panthers back to .500 on the season (11-11), and marked their sixth loss in the last seven games, all coming against OVC foes.

Eastern Illinois leads the all-time series with Southeast Missouri State by a 21-18 margin. The Panthers have won five straight encounters between the teams, dating back to an 80-65 victory by the Redhawks during the 2006-07 season. The most recent meeting between the clubs saw EIU cruise to an 88-68 win on January 9th.

Marland Smith posted a game-high 17 points as the Redhawks easily handled SIUE, 68-49, on Tuesday. The win marked only the fourth home victory for SEMO, improving the club to 7-15 on the season overall. Anthony Allison added 12 points in the win for the Redhawks, and he leads the team in scoring for the season with 10.4 ppg. SEMO improved on its season average of 42.6 percent shooting from the field on Tuesday, connecting on 47.9 percent of its attempts from the floor (23-of-48). The Redhawks dominated the paint, outscoring Edwardsville 30-12 under the net.

Tyler Laser, Eastern Illinois' only player averaging double-digit points on the season (14.3 ppg), led the way once again for the Panthers by scoring 20 points in last Saturday's loss to Jacksonville State. Curry McKinney contributed a 13-point effort in the team's seventh conference defeat, putting its OVC record at 5-7, mirroring the success the team has achieved on the road. EIU only found itself trailing by three points heading into intermission, but shot a terrible 20.0 percent (5-of-25) from the field in the second stanza, taking itself out of contention. The Panthers average almost exactly as many points per game as its defense allows, scoring 66.4 ppg while giving up 66.2 ppg.

SEMO is coming off of a solid victory, but one has to think Marland Smith and company must step up if they wish to beat a hungry Eastern Illinois team. Look for the Redhawks to take care of business.