Eastern never gave up in its game against Murray State on Monday, but it was still denied a mark in the win column.

The score for the game had the Panthers losing to the Racers by six points with a final score of 79-73.

Head coach Linda Wunder said she was proud of her team despite their loss against Murray.

“While fighting back to make it a game we never gave up, and I think that is the first time I have seen that all season long,” Wunder said.

The Panthers led in the first half by a score of 26-13 until the Racers made a comeback to go ahead of the Panthers by one point at the end of the first half.

Junior guard Megan Fuqua sunk a 25-footer, placing the Racers over the Panthers with 25 seconds left in the first half.

Fuqua ended the game with 15 points, as Murray’s second leading scorer for the game tied with senior guard Khadija Head. The Racers’ leading scorer was sophomore guard Brittany Park. She had a total of 25 points by the end of the game.

Eastern was able to stop Murray from scoring any field goals for the last five and half minutes of the game.

Eastern used this late defensive stand to make a 22-8 run in the final six minutes of the game, closing the gap to two points with 25 seconds to play.

“We went through a lot of adversity here, and our players got angry enough and battled back,” Wunder said.

All five of Eastern’s starters ended the game with four personal fouls each. The Panthers ended the game with a total of 25 fouls. Eastern’s foul trouble allowed the Racers to get the lead back up to six.

The Racers were 29-35 from the line. Murray State was also able to make 25-28 of their foul shots in the second half.

Senior forward Beth Schnakenberg hit four out of four of her free throws in the last 14 seconds of the game. Schnakenberg also made all 13 of her points in the second half.

“Their free throw shooting was a key with 35 to our 18 and we didn’t start to foul them until less than a minute to go,” Wunder said.

Eastern had a better field goal percentage then Murray. Eastern finished shooting 46 percent in field goals. Murray only shot 36 percent in their field goals.

The Panthers also ended the game with 20 turnovers. The Racers were able to gain 13 points off of the Panthers turnovers. The Racers ended the game with only 8 turnovers. However Eastern took advantage of Murray’s mistakes and made 10 points off of the turnovers.