Seventeen points, four rebounds, two assists, one block and a steal is a good week for most basketball players, but for Eastern’s Brooke Gossett, it was her box score last Saturday in the Panthers’ victory against Tennessee-Martin.

Gossett, a fifth-year senior from West Frankfort, is the Panthers’ second leading scorer on the season. She averages 9.9 points a game and pulls down 5.6 boards.

For her efforts last week, Gossett is this week’s Top Cat.

More important then her solid numbers on a nightly basis is Gossett’s role as a team leader. Head coach Linda Wunder speaks highly about Gossett’s role both on and off the court.

“Brooke is a quiet leader,” Wunder said. “She is very encouraging to her teammates. She helps on the court and also off the court. Brooke understands the game and our system so she helps her teammates to understand.”

Despite the Panthers’ slow start (3-12, 2-3 OVC) Gossett has been on fire. She is enjoying her finest season in Panther blue and white.

“Brooke has been excellent this year,” Wunder said. “She has really picked up her game.”

While Gossett may have just recently begun to turn the heads of Panther fans with her numbers, Wunder says she knew Gossett was a talent when the coach took the reins 4 years ago.

“I didn’t recruit Brooke to Eastern but I did inherit her as a red-shirt freshman,” Wunder said. “I have coached all four years that she has played and I knew that she had a lot of talent as a freshman.”

Besides leading the Panthers in rebounds, Gossett has the highest shooting percentage on the team. The 6-foot-2-inch forward/center has hit on 63 of her 108 shots this season. Her 58 percent from the field is 10 percentage points higher then her closet teammate, junior center Allison Collins.

“It (high shooting percentage) is really a combination of Brooke being an excellent shooter and her ability to get good looks at the basket,” Wunder said. “She is a consistent shooter and she is always in good position.”

Gossett has continued to put up strong numbers even though the Panthers are missing last year’s leading scorer Pam O’Connor. O’Connor recently announced Saturday she will red-shirt because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament and a fractured patella suffered during the summer. The absence of O’Connor has forced Gossett to alter her game.

“Brooke has changed her game a little bit with Pam out,” Wunder said. “She realizes that she has to step up now and she has become more focused.”

Gossett is one of the Panthers most versatile players. She plays both forward and center depending on the situation.

“She is really interchangeable at either forward or center,” Wunder said. “When we go to a smaller lineup she’ll play center, if we go with a big lineup Allison (Collins) will play center and Brooke will move to forward.”

Whether Gossett plays the four or five she continually has big offensive showings. To date, she is the only Panther to record a double-double this season when she scored 20 and grabbed 10 rebounds against IUPU-Indianapolis back on Nov. 26. She nearly matched the feat against Loyola-Chicago and Southern Illinois falling one rebound short each time.

However, personal accomplishments are not the main concern for the Panthers. The team is trying to rebound from a poor start and recently the Panthers have done just that.

With two consecutive wins against Ohio Valley Conference foes and the impressive play from Gossett the Panthers, currently sixth in the conference, could be back in the OVC race in the upcoming weeks.

“It feels good to get some wins,” Wunder said. “It still remains to be seen if we can compete with all of the OVC teams but we’ll have our shot coming up.”

With Gossett on the court, the Panthers have one bullet ready to shoot down the rest of the OVC.