The Eastern women’s basketball team is facing another must-win situation against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville on Saturday at Lantz Arena.

The Panthers are coming off a 75-59 win against Murray State in which they shot 53 percent in the game and held the Racers to 36.4 percent shooting from the floor.

In order to win on Saturday, Eastern forward Sabina Oroszova said her team needs to play a similar way as it did against Murray State.

“We need to continue to run the floor as we did on (Wednesday) and get some easy points,” she said. “And, definitely play team basketball with everyone involved.”

Freshman guard Grace Lennox had her best game for the Panthers in the win as she shot 6-of-7 from the floor and 4-of-5 from the free throw line for 17 points. She also had seven assists in the game, which is a career high.

The Panthers had three other players in double figures including senior forward Sabina Oroszova, senior forward Arnisha Thomas and sophomore forward Erica Brown.

Brown and Oroszova recorded double doubles in the game. Brown had 10 points and 10 rebounds, while Oroszova scored 18 points and corralled 12 rebounds.

Edwardsville is coming off an 87-67 win over Austin Peay on Thursday, where leading scorer Shronda Butts scored 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting.

They have also won eight straight games, are 8-1 and in second place in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Despite the Cougars record, Oroszova feels her team is similar.

“It will be a very good matchup,” she said. “They shoot the ball well, rebound and run the floor well.”

The Cougars defense held Austin Peay leading scorer, Tiasha Gray, to 13 points on 5-of-17 shooting, while about a week ago, Gray scored 32 points on the Panthers.

Tierney Austin and Micha Jones also scored in double digits for the Cougars on Thursday.

Austin scored 15 points on 6-of-15 shooting and is now averaging 13 points a game on the season.

Jones scored 13 points on 6-of-12 shooting and corralled eight rebounds.

While shooting 69 percent from the floor, Edwardsville is allowing 65 percent shooting from opponents.

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