Eastern found itself one more scoring run away from knocking off another conference contender as the Panthers fell 79-66 to Southeast Missouri Tuesday night at Lantz Arena.

The Panthers used a 24-12 run in the middle of the second half to crawl back within four points of the Ohio Valley Conference preseason favorite with nearly seven minutes left to go in the contest.

“The encouraging side of tonight’s game is that we cut the lead down to four,” Eastern head coach Linda Wunder said. “But the negative aspect was we didn’t have the effort to take the lead.”

Eastern began the game with some offensive proficiency as the Panthers were ahead 14-12 with 9:53 left in the first half. SEMO called a timeout in which its head coach B.J. Smith loudly emphasized his displeasure with his team’s effort. After the timeout, the Otahkians used its full court press to outscore the Panthers 27-11 over the final twelve minutes of the opening frame.

“What happens when they go to pressure like that is it takes time off the shot clock, which gives us less time to run our offense,” Wunder said.

The press was a main reason for SEMO’s 26 points off 22 Panther turnovers.

“We don’t see a press like that except for Eastern Kentucky and I think it did catch us off guard tonight,” sophomore guard Megan Sparks said.

Wunder was also disappointed with her team’s effort on the boards specifically the 17-4 SEMO advantage on the offensive glass.

“I think the overwhelming factor tonight was offensive boards because when you look down and see 17-4, that’s just unacceptable,” Wunder said. “It simply wasn’t a good effort on the defensive end and on the boards tonight.”

The two bright spots for Eastern were the offensive production of junior center Pam O’Connor and Sparks.

O’Connor responded from a disappointing eight point performance against Austin Peay by earning 23 points on eight of 12 from the field.

“I had a rough time last game and just tried to get into a rhythm early,” O’Connor said.

Sparks came off the bench to be the only other Panther in double figures with 21 points, six rebounds and no turnovers.

“Offensively, I’ve been kind of inconsistent this season because my shoot simply hasn’t fallen,” Sparks said.

Wunder did not state whether or not Tuesday’s performance will allow Sparks to return to the starting lineup.

“Every time she starts out on the bench she has a better performance,” Wunder said. “She’ll have to earn her playing time in practice.”

The Panthers didn’t get that third offensive punch from senior guard Lauren Dailey because the Otakians defense held her in check for only five points on one of five shooting from the field.

Wunder and Sparks both attributed SEMO’s defensive effort to Otakians ability to control the tempo from the beginning of the game.

“They got us out of our normal game with their pressure and it was different to adjust to,” Sparks said.

“After we broke the press, we didn’t do a good job finding the open guy and get easy buckets,” Wunder said.

Eastern will attempt to attain that elusive first conference victory Saturday afternoon at Lantz Arena as they take on Tennessee State.