CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – The glass slipper didn’t fit Tuesday night as the underdog Panthers lost to the Southeast Missouri State Otahkians 79-76.

Eastern blew a 13-point lead with 13 minutes left to go after SEMO outscored the Panthers 25-11 over the next eight minutes.

“We simply don’t know how to close out a game,” Panther head coach Linda Wunder said.

Senior center Brooke Gossett said: “It’s hell to lose by less than five points because it means you were in the game the entire way.”

Gossett got into early foul trouble as Eastern’s leading rebounder picked up her second foul with 15:29 left in the first half.

“I really think (the officials) had my number over the last three games,” Gossett said.

The game was called tight as both teams committed 55 fouls and shot a combined total of 78 free throws.

“How many times do you see that many fouls in a NCAA basketball game,” Wunder said.

However, while Gossett sat on the bench, the Panthers went on a 22-8 run to take a 27-16 lead with 7:17 left in the game.

The Panthers stunned SEMO early by shooting 61 percent in the first half. Junior guard Lauren Dailey scored 14 points in the first 20 minutes. Eastern’s leading scorer was held to a single point in the second half on only two shot attempts.

“I’m pretty sure they overlooked us as a seventh seed coming in,” freshman guard Megan Sparks said.

Sparks led the team in scoring with 18 points on five-of-nine shooting and made seven of 10 from the charity stripe.

Eastern went into the locker room with a 42-36 lead as the Panther defense held SEMO to 38 percent shooting from the field and one of nine from beyond the arc.

“I think this was the story of the entire season where we would build up a lead and then just give it away,” Sparks said.

With 19:31 left in the game, Brooke Gossett committed her third personal foul and was forced to watch from the bench.

With her on the bench, Sparks stepped up to lead the Panthers on a 11-5 run to increase the lead to 11 with 12:32 left.

“Megan is a competitor who will do anything to help her team win,” Wunder said. “I was not concerned about her being a freshman in this game.”

The momentum drastically changed though as Eastern failed to score over the next seven minutes and suddenly the score was tied with nearly three minutes to go.

“We needed to compete with SEMO for 40 minutes and except for two small stretches we did a pretty good job of that,” Wunder said.

Gossett, who was playing in her final game at Eastern, finally scored her first basket of the game with 2:52 left and rattled off a total of five consecutive points to keep the game tied with 1:22 left.

“It’s always disappointing to see a senior’s season end,” Wunder said. “I really wish I would have been able to take them to Nashville.”

However, the Otahkians made seven of eight free throws in the final minute to ice the game.

The Panthers had one final shot to tie the game with less than 10

seconds left but with Eastern down three, freshman guard Ashley Kearney elected to go for an uncontested lay-up, but missed.

“I have no idea what Ashley was doing because I called a play to set up a three,” Wunder said.

The Otahkians will move on to the Nashville to play Tennessee Tech at 2 p.m. Friday.