GAME NOTES: Continuing with their season-opening, four-game homestand, the Cincinnati Bearcats welcome the Panthers of Eastern Illinois to Fifth Third Arena for Sunday's tussle as part of the Emerald Coast Classic.

Eastern Illinois comes in with only one victory in its first three games, as the team snuck an 81-51 rout of Eureka College between losses to both Missouri State (64-53) and UC Davis (63-61). This is the first of four straight the Panthers will play away from home, and the team will kick off its Ohio Valley Conference slate against visiting Tennessee Tech on New Year's Day.

While Cincinnati has a pair of wins under its belt, the team hasn't exactly lit the world on fire in the first week. The season opener saw the Bearcats play tough defense in knocking off St. Francis (PA), 52-37, and then they survived against Morehead State this past Wednesday, 69-61. Mick Cronin's club opens American Athletic Conference action at home versus SMU on Jan. 3, 2015.

This bout marks the first meeting between the Panthers and Bearcats in men's basketball.

Eastern Illinois has played pretty well on defense this season, allowing only 59.3 ppg behind a typical shooting output of .392 overall. Opponents have hit 44.9 percent of their 3-point tries though. Chris Olivier is the only EIU player averaging double figures in the scoring column, and his 14.0 ppg are as a result of his 60.6 percent shooting effort. He is also the club's leading rebounder with 6.3 rpg. The Panthers are scoring 65.0 ppg, and they too have done well from distance, hitting 42 percent of their 3-point tries. They are also +8 in rebounding margin.

Olivier scored 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds in EIU's narrow win over UC Davis, but the team struggled to find the bottom of the net, connecting on only 37.7 percent of its total shots. It did however, manage to hit 6-of-11 3- point attempts. Trae Anderson came off the bench to pace the team with 16 points, while Dylan Chatman added 15 and Cornell Johnston 10. A 38-28 edge in rebounds helped make up for the fact that the Panthers allowed the Aggies to make good on 10-of-20 long-range launches.

Cincinnati also saw one of its reserves lead the team's scoring barrage in the last outing, an eight-point win over Morehead State, as Farad Cobb drained six 3-pointers en route to 24 points. Octavius Ellis added 16 points to go with seven rebounds, and Troy Caupain finished with a line of 13 points, six assists and five boards. The Bearcats shot just 37.3 percent from the field, but hit 40.9 percent of their 3-point attempts, while holding the Eagles to 37.5 percent overall. UC had a 22-12 edge in points from the foul line, as well as 33-11 advantage in bench points.

Ellis (13 points) and Gary Clark (10 points) were the only Bearcats to reach double figures in the season opener against St. Francis, but it was the team's defensive effort that was the story, as the Red Flash shot just 30 percent from the field, which included a 4-of-16 showing from beyond the arc, and they committed 21 turnovers in netting a mere 37 points.

Despite their rather lackluster play thus far, offensively anyway, the Bearcats are clearly the better team in this matchup and should certainly have enough to fend off the visiting Panthers.