Saturday’ 81-70 victory against Austin Peay had all the makings of a professional wrestling match.

Bodies flying all over the floor for loose balls, foul after foul (42 in all) being called and a Lady Govs team that was in the face of every Eastern player whenever they touched the ball.

But red-shirt junior guard Dominique Sims said that style of play suits the Panthers just fine.

“It was a battle,” said Sims, who finished with 15 points, six rebounds, and six assists. “We just had to play our game and stay in our mentality and not get caught up with all the fouls and the cheap calls or whatever you want to call it. We kept telling each other, ‘Let’s play our game and don’t worry about what they’re doing.'”

The Panthers had to deal with several players who, lacking in height, made up for in post mobility, including Lady Govs’ 5-foot-11 junior center Nicole Jamen.

Jamen, a native of Yaounde, Cameroon, battled the Panthers’ post players throughout the game, but seniors Rachel Galligan and Lindsey Kluempers, and junior Maggie Kloak, got the better of her in the end.

Galligan finished with 20 points, including 10 straight for Eastern to open the second half, while Kloak added nine off the bench.

Kluempers had a game-high seven rebounds.

“We expected it to be a battle out there,” said Kloak after the victory. “They have some good post players who are aggressive and strong and that’s how we like to play too.”

Stepping up in Canale’s absence

It’s been no secret that senior guard Ellen Canale has been one of the stars for the Panthers in this young season. But in Saturday’s victory, Canale found herself somewhere she wasn’t accustomed to in close games: on the bench.

Canale picked up two early fouls and had to sit all but five minutes of the first half.

In the second half it was more of the same as she picked up her third foul 3 and a half minutes into the half before having to sit with her fourth foul at the 9:39 mark.

She wound up fouling out with just one minute to play in regulation but played a season-low 14 minutes and had only six points on one-for-two shooting.

But with Canale sitting, Sims and senior guard Megan Edwards picked up the slack, combining for 26 points, 11 rebounds, and nine assists.

Sims logged season-highs in points, rebounds, and assists and Edwards had a season-high five rebounds.

Canale entered the night second on the team in rebounding average with 5.5 per game.

Head coach Brady Sallee said that his players stepping up came as no surprise to him and everyone got in on the action played a really tough game.

“Everyone had to play hard, everyone had to play tough,” Sallee said. “There was no place in that game for anybody that was going to play soft and we stepped up to the challenge and got a good win.”

Ohio Valley Conference update

Eastern was one of three teams that opened OVC play undefeated, with Morehead State (2-0) and Tennessee Tech (1-0) being the other two.

Morehead State won a pair of home contests, coming away with a 82-54 victory against Tennessee-Martin and a 84-76 victory against Murray State, which was predicted to finish second in the OVC behind the Panthers.

Morehead State was picked in the OVC coaches poll to finish sixth in the conference.

Tennessee Tech played only one conference game during the weekend and picked up an 84-60 victory over Jacksonville State at home.

Tennessee Tech was predicted to finish seventh in the OVC while Jacksonville State was picked fifth.

Jacksonville State (0-1), Southeast Missouri St. (0-2), and UT Martin (0-2) all finished the weekend winless.

Murray State senior guard Amber Guffey leads the conference with 21.9 points per game. Teammate senior forward Ashley Hayes is second averaging 20.1 ppg.

Collin Whitchurch can be reached at 581-7944 or at [email protected].