CHARLESTON, Ill. - The IUPUI basketball team came up short on the road at Eastern Illinois on Thursday night (Dec. 7), falling to the host Panthers, 75-58. Junior Jlynn Counter finished with 19 points, six rebounds and a pair of assists in the defeat. 

Eastern Illinois (5-5) shot 64 percent from the floor in the second half and outscored the Jaguars by 11 after intermission to race away with the victory. Kooper Jacobi led EIU with 15 points and 15 rebounds while Corey Sawyer Jr. also tallied 15 off the Panthers' bench. 

The Panthers dominated IUPUI (3-7) on the interior, outrebounding the Jags by a 38-24 margin and outscoring the guests in the paint, 52-38. 

IUPUI built a quick 7-0 lead to start the game and then immediately went silent as Eastern Illinois reeled off a 13-0 run over the next four minutes. The Panthers led by as many as 13 in the opening half before the Jaguars closed within 34-28 at the break, thanks in part to back-to-back dunks from John Egbuta and Vincent Brady II to cap the half. 

EIU opened the second half with six straight points to push its lead back to 12 and maintained a double-digit lead the remainder of the evening. The lead grew as large as 23 just beyond the midpoint of the second half. 

Brady, making his first start of the season, finished with seven points and three steals and DJ Jackson added seven off the bench. Bryce Monroe and Kidtrell Blocker added six points apiece and Cooper Dewitt had four of IUPUI's season-high 14 steals. 

IUPUI finished the game shooting 43.4 percent from the floor and just 2-of-13 (15.4 percent) from three-point range. Brady drilled a trey on IUPUI's opening possession of the game and the Jaguars proceeded to miss their next 11 three-point attempts before Counter hit a triple with 2:35 remaining. 

The Jaguars will return to action on Tuesday night (Dec. 12) when they trek to Minneapolis to face Big Ten foe Minnesota at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on BTN+.