The Eastern women’s basketball team never led in a 92-44 loss to Northwestern on Saturday afternoon in Tempe, Ariz. in the Arizona State Classic.

Northwestern got off to a hot start from the floor, outscoring the Panthers 20-4 in the first seven minutes, and then kept pouring it on.

After Arnisha Thomas stopped the run by the Wildcats, Northwestern would go on another 28-13 run to end the half.

Thomas was the leading scorer for the Panthers with 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting and had eight rebounds on the day.

The second half would be more of the same for the Wildcats as they would start the half on a 10-0 run capped off by Christen Inman, who scored 14 points on 7-of-13 from the floor and had four rebounds.

Northwestern would expand its lead to its largest lead of 51 with seven minutes left in the second half and the two teams would play back-and-forth basketball for the rest of the half.

The Wildcats had four players in double figures including Inman, Ashley Deary, Nia Coffey and Lauren Douglas.

Coffey led Northwestern with 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting, and Douglas scored 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting.

Also, Deary scored 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting.

The Panthers leading scorer Sabina Oroszova was held to six points on 3-of-10 shooting.

Eastern had 31 turnovers in the loss and shot 15-of-47 from the floor and Northwestern shot 37-of-75, including 7-of-19 from the 3-point line.

The 31 turnovers for the Panthers is a season-high.

The Wildcats improved to 10-0 on the season and Eastern fell to 3-8.

Northwestern will play host Arizona State at 3 p.m. on Sunday, and Eastern will tip-off against Lehigh at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.

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