Megan Sparks gave Eastern a much-needed lift off the bench and had a warrior-like performance while dealing with an injury.

Sparks led the Panthers with 16 points by shooting 5-of-10 from the floor and keeping the Panthers in the game until late in the second half.

“All I can say about Megan is she is a true competitor,” Panthers head coach Linda Wunder said.

However, Lantz Arena was nearly silent for all but four minutes as Southern Illinois (3-2) led the entire way to win 82-67 Saturday.

With a little over 16 minutes left to go, the Panthers (1-5) found themselves down by 15 points. Over the next three minutes, Eastern played like it had something to prove. The Panthers outscored Southern 11-0 with four different Eastern players scoring.

“I thought we were really had them,” Wunder said.

However, within a blink of an eye, Southern had the lead back up to 11 and it ballooned up to as much as 20.

“We’d be a lot better if our kids could play all the time like we do in stretches,” Wunder said.

Eastern’s junior guard Lauren Dailey had a poor shooting night, scoring only 10 points by going 4 of 13 from the field and 1 of 5 from beyond the three-point arc.

“We need offense out of (Lauren), but I think she’s just thinking too much,” Wunder said.

The Salukis got a solid performance out of junior center Tiffany Crutcher in the post. Crutcher doubled her point and rebound average Saturday night by earning a game-high 20 points and 10 rebounds.

After being out-rebounded and getting fewer points in the paint, Eastern will eagerly look for preseason Ohio Valley Conference First Team center Pam O’Connor to return soon from her torn anterior cruciate ligament injury.

“Our post-defense was very disappointing tonight,” Wunder said. “I have not seen us play defense like that since I got here.”

Southern also shot 68 percent from the field in the second half and ended the Panthers’ hopes by running off a 20-4 stretch late in the second half.

“Right now we are a 20-minute team,” senior forward Brooke Gossett said.

One other bright spot for the Panthers was red-shirt freshman guard Ashley Kearney, who controlled the team’s half-court offense throughout the game. Kerney had eight points, three steals and limited her turnovers to three in 34 minutes of play.

“We need more consistent games like this from (Ashley),” Wunder said. “Sometimes, I forget she really is like a freshman.”

“We are a really aggressive team and our offense is there,” Sparks said.

The Panthers will travel to Madison, Wis. to play the 2001 NCAA Tournament participant Wisconsin Badgers on Tuesday.