Eastern freshman Grace Lennox and senior Arnisha Thomas were nominated for awards for their play last week.

Thomas was nominated for Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Week after she scored 18 points on 7-of-17 shooting in the loss to Missouri-Kansas City on Saturday in Lantz Arena.

Lennox was nominated for OVC Freshman of the Week after she posted seven points on 3-of-5 shooting in 37 minutes.

Almesha Jones from Morehead State won OVC Player of the Week, after she had 19.5 points, eight assists, five rebounds and four steals in the opener at Norfolk State.

Against George Mason, Jones scored 20 points, had seven assists and four rebounds in 40 minutes on the floor.

For the week, she shot 48 percent on the field and 83 percent from the free throw line.

Samaria Howard won newcomer of the week after she led Tennessee Tech past Florida International in the season opener.

Howard was 7-of-11 from the floor, while going 3-of-4 from the free throw line for 17 points in the game.

She had three steals and one assist in only 20 minutes of action.

Eriel McKee had the best outing for a Morehead State freshman appearing in her first collegiate game in more than 20 years, when she scored 20 points in the season-opening victory at Norfolk State.

She added a team-high seven rebounds and had three steals in 26 minutes of play.

SHOOTING AND DEFENSIVE WOES CONTINUE

The Eastern women’s basketball team continued to struggle shooting from the field, as the Panthers dropped to 0-2, 66-44 Tuesday night.

The Panthers have a shot 28.9 percent from the floor in their first two games.

In the game on Tuesday the Panthers missed 15 layups and shot 9-of-19 from the free throw line and are now 18-of-34 on the season.

Phylicia Johnson has missed all 14 of her shots she has attempted through her first two games at Eastern.

Shakita Cox is shooting 4-of-17 from the floor, and Sabina Oroszova is 9-of-29.

Also, the Panthers are shooting 5-of-27 from the 3-point line.

The Panthers have been outscored by a combined 40 points in their first two games.

They are allowing opponents to shoot 49 percent against them and 50 percent from the 3-point line.

Opponents are out-rebounding Eastern 90-72 and the Panthers are getting outscored 67.5-48.5 in the first two games.

PANTHERS HEAD TO TEXAS

The Panthers will be heading to Denton, Texas for the Hospitality Hill Challenge at North Texas University featuring the University of Massachusetts, Florida State and North Texas.

Eastern will play Florida State on Friday and North Texas on Sunday.

This will be the first time the Panthers have played the Seminoles and also the first time they have participated in this tournament.

Games will be played at The Super Pit, which is North Texas’ home arena.

The Super Pit holds 10,500 people and will be the biggest arena Eastern plays in all season.

Florida State finished the season 21-12 overall and 7-9 in the Atlantic Coast Conference and North Texas finished its season 12-18 overall and 6-10 in Conference USA.

BLACK SIGNS TWO PLAYERS

Eastern announced last week that they have signed two impact players for the program as it announced its 2015 recruiting class for the NCAA’s fall signing period.

Eastern coach Debbie Black signed Brittin Boyer and Kayla Steward.

Boyer is a 5-foot-11 forward that plays at Sullivan High School and was named the Area Player of the Year as a junior.

She led her team to the IHSA Class 2A Regional appearance with a 21-4 record. She averaged a double-double per game with 16.4 points and 10 rebounds per game.

Steward is a 5-foot-8 guard that plays at Boylan Catholic High School in Rockford. She scored 500 points for the season in her junior season and was a factor in the team winning 23 straight games.

Bob Reynolds can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].