Two weeks ago Eastern’s women’s basketball team was on a season high. The team had just won back-to-back games and were moving up the Ohio Valley Conference standings.

However, in the Panthers (3-15, 2-5) last two games, nothing has seemed to go right. The Panthers committed 27 turnovers in their 82-64 loss to Southeast Missouri State Thursday night.

“I felt like we were never really in this game,” Eastern head coach Linda Wunder said. “We were just trying to keep our heads above water.”

The Panthers won the opening tip off and scored on their first possession on a two-pointer by junior guard Lauren Dailey.

But it would be the only time Eastern held the lead. The Otahkians (11-6, 5-2) made a 14-2 run, giving them a 10-point lead four and a half minutes into the game.

SEMO’s full-court press applied pressure to the Panthers and forced 15 turnovers in the first half.

“We were out of our game,” senior center Brooke Gossett said. “We weren’t smart and it showed.”

The Otahkians converted the Panthers’ mistakes into points. SEMO scored 20 fast-break points in the first half and 14 more off of second chances.

“They live on their full-court pressure and sometimes we handled it well and sometimes we didn’t,” Wunder said.

Eastern was able to keep SEMO from running away to a big lead with some quality shooting in the first half.

The Panthers made 14-of-30 from the field, led by 5-of-6 shooting form Dailey. Gossett made 4-of-6 from the field and made good on a pair of free throws.

Outside of Dailey and Gossett, the rest of the Panthers only scored 13 points. Sophomore guard Rachel Karos came off the bench to score Eastern’s last five points of the half helping the team cut the deficit to seven points at halftime.

The Otahkians attack was led by senior forward Lori Chase. She knocked down 5-of-7 of her shots from the field including 2-of-3 three pointers and 2-of-4 from the charity stripe for 14 points.

Juniors guard Kenja White and forward Yashika Sidbury added seven points a piece by halftime.

The Otahkians started to build their lead back up early in the second half. They scored 15 of the first 24 points in the second half to improve their lead to 15.

The Panthers’ last signs of life came at the 10 minute mark of the half. Gossett made a pair of baskets within 20 seconds of each other and junior forward Katie Meyers added another to cut the SEMO lead to seven, which was the lowest it would get for the rest of the game.

“We’re getting back into our old habits and breaking down in the second half,” Gossett said.

However, the momentum the Panthers had gathered came to a crashing halt when Dailey, the team’s leading scorer this season, came down hard on her left knee with just over seven minutes to play. Dailey left the game with a bruised knee, but returned a few minutes later and converted on a pair of free throws to finish the game with 16 points.

“It’s always scary when somebody goes down, but I knew she’d be back,” Gossett said.

Gossett finished the game with 16 points and grabbed eight rebounds.Freshman guard Megan Sparks added 12 points and the rest of the Panthers were held to five points or less.

The Otahkians had four players finish in double figures. Chase made three three-pointers and finished with 20 points. Sidbury made 4-of-7 from behind the arc and finished behind Chase with 18. White added 14 and junior guard Sarah Costello had 10.

Limiting turnover will be a concern for the Panthers when they host Tennessee State Saturday. The team is still without a true point guard with red shirt freshman guard Ashley Kearney out with a back injury.

“We have to be better ball handlers, especially since we’re missing Ashley,” Karos said.