The most impressive part of the Eastern Illinois women’s basketball team’s 78-44 victory against Eastern Kentucky on Thursday was not the play of red-shirt junior guard Dominique Sims.

Nothing against Sims’ effort (18 points on 7-for-10 shooting, four rebounds, an assist and a steal), or that of junior forward Maggie Kloak (18 points, six rebounds and two steals).

The most impressive part of the blowout victory, quite simply, was the execution of the team’s game plan. It’s not uncommon to hear a coach or an athlete talk about how they need to execute better to win, how they need to control the ball better, or how they need to cut down on mistakes.

But rarely does a team come out and execute when they say that’s what they need to do.

And that’s what the Panthers did.

Throughout the week it was clear that Eastern head coach Brady Sallee was set on cutting down his team’s turnovers. He said it, and so did Galligan and Sims. So what happens?

The Panthers come out and commit a season-low 12 turnovers in their biggest win against Eastern Kentucky in program history.

Phrases such as “chip on our shoulder,” “playing angry,” and “playing with something to prove” were used after last Saturday’s loss to Southeast Missouri.

Well, the Panthers played with all of those emotions as indicated Thursday, and their ability to fix problems in the span of three practices is incredible at any level, let alone for a relatively small Division-I program.

They always play with energy, but it was more evident Thursday.

The usual mild-mannered Kloak even picked up the first technical foul of her career after hot-headed Colonels freshman guard Kayla Drake took offense to a hard foul by Panthers senior guard Ellen Canale.

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