The Eastern women’s basketball team opened its regular season with an eye-opening record-setting victory Nov. 21, but has since come back to earth with a losses in consecutive games.

The Panthers set a record for most points, field goals made (54) and assists (42) in the team’s 126-36 win over Indiana Northwest at Lantz Arena. Eastern had lost its last six season-opening games, but early on in the contest it was clear the streak would not be extended.

After just seven minutes of play, Eastern opened up a 21-point lead and would bring a 71-14 lead into the half. All 11 Panthers in uniform scored by the end of the first half. Eastern continued the dominance in the second half shooting 62 percent from the field to coast to the easy victory.

Sophomore guard Megan Sparks led five Panthers in double-digit scoring with 21 points. The Mattoon native hit one of two three point field goal shots she attempted and dished out three assists to go along with her three steals.

Sophomore center Janelle Cazy made the most of her 19 minutes of action by scoring a career-high 20 points on 8-10 shooting. Cazy said playing hard and getting a big win should help Eastern the rest of the year.

“Coach told us to keep up the intensity, to keep going hard,” Cazy said. “This will give us more confidence. We know what it takes to be a good ball team.”

Eastern’s head coach Linda Wunder was impressed with the toughness Indiana Northwest showed in defeat and also the teamwork the Panthers displayed in the opener.

“This team played very, very hard. They cut to the basket hard, played hard and didn’t quit. When the score gets like that, it’s easy to quit but they kept after it,” Wunder said.

We scrapped and were diving after loose balls which led to easy baskets. Our team played very unselfish; they made the extra pass to find the open person, that was most important to me.”

Making her first appearance after missing last season with a knee injury, junior center Pam O’Connor looked sharp adding 18 points and going 8-10 from the field. Entering off the bench, senior forward Katie Meyers pulled down a game-and career-high 14 rebounds. The Lyons Township graduate also had seven points and five blocks in 24 minutes of play.

The Panthers couldn’t carry over the momentum against Illinois-Chicago on Nov. 24, losing the contest 65-50. The Panthers found themselves down by 14 during the middle of the second half, and a12-0 run by the Flames that followed did the Panthers in.

After shooting over 60 percent against Indiana Northwest, Eastern converted just 16 of 49 field goals en route to 33 percent shooting. The Panthers also had trouble from the charity stripe connecting on only five of their 10 attempts in the first half.

“At times in the first half, I wish we had taken better advantage of their foul trouble,” Wunder said. “If we had made those free throws we go into the locker room down two and have a little different mindset heading in.”

Eastern made it 0-2 against instate rivals with a 73-61 loss against Loyola on Nov. 29, at Lantz Arena. The Panthers took a 36-35 lead into halftime, but Loyola was able to capitalize on 25 Eastern turnovers to walk out with the road victory.

The Ramblers had five players in double-figures and connected on 9-21 three-point field goals to drop the Panthers record to 1-2 on the young season.

One bright spot for the Panthers was O’Connor, who led the Panthers with 17 points and added five rebounds during the contest.

The Panthers will next be in action Tuesday night as they host Robert Morris at 5:15 p.m.