Eastern matched or bettered the University of Tennessee-Martin in every offensive category Saturday.

The problem was the Panthers (5-18, 4-8 in the Ohio Valley Conference) were unable to pull out a win against the Skyhawks despite their play in the game. The Skyhawks defeated the Panthers by four by a final score of 62-58.

“A missed opportunity best sums things up,” Eastern head coach Linda Wunder said. “The last eight minutes we became tentative on offense and stopped pushing the ball.”

The Panthers held the lead for most of the game until there was 4:48 left in the second half.

“(Tennessee-Martin) gained momentum, and the more momentum they got the harder they played and they took advantage of our miscues,” Wunder said.

Tennessee-Martin was able to come back from an 11 point deficit in the beginning of the second half with help from junior center Julie Young. Young led the Skyhawks to a tie after making a pair of free throws.

Senior forward Amy Watson helped the Skyhawks regain the lead by scoring off a Panther turnover and causing Eastern to foul her when she went up for a lay-up.

Watson made the lay-up and the free throw to add to the Skyhawk lead of 51-48.

Eastern was able to come back and lead by one with 2:19 left in the game making the score 54-53.

Watson made another free throw to win back the lead and the Skyhawks didn’t lose the lead the for the rest of the game.

“We didn’t finish them off when we had the chance,” Wunder said.

One of the problems plaguing the Panthers was their multitude of fouls. The personal fouls against Eastern made a difference in how the game played out for the Panthers. Starters junior forward Lauren Daily and senior center Brooke Gossett were whistled for four fouls each.

As a whole, the Panthers racked up a total of 17 fouls for the game. The Skyhawks took advantage of the plethora of fouls by converting on 18 of their 20 free throw attempts. They made 16-of-16 foul shots in the second half.

Eastern’s leading scorers were freshmen guard Megan Sparks and Daily. Sparks finished the game with 12 points and Daily ended the game with 11 points.

“It is another lesson on how to win on the road,” Wunder said