After climbing its way into a tie for fifth place in the Ohio Valley Conference with Morehead State, Eastern played its worst game of the year Saturday against the Golden Eagles.

“From start to finish, I think this was our poorest game of the year,” head coack Linda Wunder said.

Coming into the game, the Panthers (5-16, 4-6) had all the momentum. The team was 4-1 in Lantz Arena against OVC opponents, and they broke an 11-game losing streak against perennial conference powerhouse Tennessee Tech. Redshirt freshman guard Ashley Kearney was cleared to return to the lineup in a limited capacity.

However, all the momentum just made it worse when the Panthers derailed sometime early in the first half and the Golden Eagles (12-9, 5-5) ran away with a 75-52 win.

“(Being ready to play is) day to day,” junior guard Lauren Dailey said. “No one was talking during our shoot around. We were just going through the motionand it showed tonight.”

Dailey scored the first two points of the game with a layup nearly one minute into the game and senior center Brooke Gossett made it a 4-2 game at the 18:27 mark, but the Golden Eagles’ leading scorer, junior guard/forward Khandi Brown, netted a three-pointer followed by a layup and Morehead never trailed again.

“I thought we started out really well,” Wunder said.”We were doing the things we need to do. We were getting the ball inside and scoring points, then we got a bit more perimeter oriented.”

Eastern’s perimeter shooting was close to non-existent in the first half. The Panthers scored 12 of its 17 first-half points in the paint. The other five points came from a three-point play by Dailey at the 14:54 mark when she was fouled on a 15-footer and freshman guard Megan Sparks lone field goal of the fist half.

Eastern’s two-time OVC Freshman of the Week (weeks of Dec. 17 and Jan. 21) made just one of six from the field including a pair of missed three-point attempts.

On the other end, Morehead was feeding off of Eastern turnovers. The Eagles made 14 steals in the first half accounting for all, but three of the Panthers 17 turnovers in the half.

The Golden Eagles converted Eastern’s errors into 21 points off turnovers.

Morehead also dominated the post. The Eagles made 22 of their 37 points in the paint. They beat the Panthers in rebounding 23-16, and allowed the Panthers to grab just one offensive rebound despite missing 20 shots.

In the second half, Wunder was franticly looking for a combination of five players capable of getting something going on offense. Eastern had nine players play at least 12 minutes and Sparks saw the most time on the court with 28 minutes.

Eastern had mild success scoring in the second half. The team improved from 8-of-28 from the field in the first half to 12-of-28 in the second half, but Morehead fouls made the biggest difference in Eastern’s scoring output in the second half.

Dailey’s three-point play accounted for Eastern’s only free-throw attempt of the first half. In the second half, the Panthers found their way to the charity stripe 15 times and converted on 10 of their chances.

Eastern’s school-record streak of games with at least one three-point field goal (47) was in jeopardy. However, sophomore guard Rachel Karos kept it alive when she sunk Eastern’s only three of the game for the team’s first points of the second half.

However, Eastern continued give the ball away. Morehead made eight more steals in the second half and Eastern finished the game with 30 turnovers.

Dailey finished the game tied for a game high in points with Brown at 14 points. Junior forward Katie Meyers made 5-of-10 from the field and a pair of free throws for 12 points and junior Center Allison Collins added 10. The rest of the Panthers managed just 16 points on 7-of-30 from the field.

Sparks had one of the worst games of her young career. After making just one shot in the first half, she missed all four of her attempts in the second and finished the game with two points.

Morehead had four players finish in double figures in scoring. Brown lead with 14, junior forward DeVonda Williams had 12 and senior guard/forward Travece Turner and junior forward La’Keta Wales had 11.

Eastern will wrap up its five-game home stand Monday when they host Eastern Kentucky.