Megan Sparks scored a game-high 25 points but the Premier All-Stars used an 18-4 second half run to hand Eastern Illinois University a 76-69 exhibition loss Sunday afternoon in Lantz Arena. The Panthers hosted their only exhibition game.

The sophomore guard shook off a slow first half in which she made only 2-of-9 field goals for five points as Eastern fell behind 43-36 heading into the locker room.

“I definitely started slow shooting. I don’t think it was first game jitters, I was trying to get used to the game tempo,” said Sparks. “I wanted to start the second half strong. If I could carry the team then I could pick up my teammates as well.”

She did exactly that, scoring 20 over the final 20 minutes. Sparks hit a 3-pointer in the first 30 seconds. Later she hit another trey, giving Eastern a 48-47 lead, then her lay-up off an offensive rebound put EIU up by three. Another 3-pointer by Sparks accounted for Eastern’s biggest lead in the second half, 53-49 with 12:05 remaining.

Sparks struck again at 10:30, but her field goal would be the last EIU lead 55-53. Lisa Cline scored six straight points, keying the crucial run. The All-Stars’ lead grew to as big as 12, 71-59, before Sparks started a rally. She accounted for the team’s next seven points to make it a six point deficit with under two minutes remaining.

Utilizing as much shot clock as possible Cline hit a fade away jumper, increasing the lead to 74-66 with 1:31 remaining all but ending any EIU comeback hopes. Lauren Dailey drilled a 3-pointer with nine seconds left for the final margin.

Sparks hit 10-of-21 field goals, five from beyond the arc, for what would be a career-high point total. She added nine rebounds, seven offensive. Making her first appearance in two years, Pam O’Connor wasted no time in making her presence felt.

The junior center, recovering from a knee injury that kept her out all last year, scored 10 of Eastern’s first 19 points as the Panthers jumped out to a 19-12 lead.

Down seven, the All-Stars went on a 14-3 run and led by as many as nine in the final minutes of the first half.

O’Connor finished with 16 points off 8-of-12 field goal shooting. Dailey also scored in double-figures, 10 points in addition to nine rebounds and five assists without a turnover.

In her EIU debut, freshman Meagan Scaggs started at forward and hit 4-of-4 free throws in the first six minutes. She added a field goal and shared game-high honors clearing away nine boards. Megan Casad started at point guard, an area of concern for head coach Linda Wunder. She missed all five field goal attempts but dished out three assists along with three rebounds. Fellow freshman point guard Melanie Ploger also dished out three assists as the two combined for all 40 minutes.

“We need to learn how to finish teams off. We don’t finish our practice off and that will have a tendency to carry over into games. They say you play how you practice. We’ll focus on that this week, practicing hard for as long as we go,” said Wunder. “We need to push each other to make each other better… One of the things we talked about at halftime was coming out and playing better defense. I thought we did exactly that in the first five minutes. We got good stops and rebounded better, especially crashing the offensive glass hard. We converted a lot of second and third chances.”

Cline scored 24 points to lead the 6-member All-Stars, playing their third game in three days. Jamie Lewis added 17 points and Tomeka Brown netted 15.

Eastern hit 7-of-21 from 3-point range – five by Sparks and two from Dailey – but missed all three second half free throw attempts, 4-of-7 overall. The Panthers dominated the boards, a 48-39 overall edge including 11 more on the offensive end.

The Panthers open the regular season at home on Friday night (Nov. 21), hosting Indiana-Northwest in a 7 p.m.tip-off.