Rachel Galligan missed a shot that would have given the Panthers an 11-point lead with 4 minutes, 37 seconds remaining in the first half.

Fortunately, for the Eastern women’s basketball team, that was the only shot Galligan missed on the night as she scored 22 points to lead the Panthers to a 76-56 victory against Tennessee Tech Thursday night at Lantz Arena. Galligan, a senior forward, finished 6-of-7 from the floor and 10-of-10 from the free throw line as the Panthers extended their program-record home winning streak to 16 games.

“I’ll have to make her run tomorrow,” Eastern head coach Brady Sallee said jokingly about Galligan’s one missed shot.

Junior forward Maggie Kloak added 15 points for the Panthers, including 9-of-10 from the free throw line as Eastern shot 56 percent from the field and 87 percent from the free throw line, both well above its season average.

“(For the past few games), our offense has been something we’ve struggled with,” Galligan said. “Our main focus this week was to work on our offense. We worked hard on it to get back to the things we like to do, (like) the guards making the right cuts and us post playing off of them. I think we executed well tonight, and it led to me getting fouled in the post and getting to the free throw line.”

The Panthers (14-7, 8-2 Ohio Valley Conference) secured their hold on second place in the league against the Golden Eagles (4-17, 2-8).

The Panthers shot only 36 percent in a 55-49 victory against Tennessee Martin last Saturday and 35 percent in a 60-51 loss at Murray State last Thursday. After those games Sallee said that he wanted his team to focus on the offense more than usual this week. The 56-percent shooting from the field was the Panthers’ second-best shooting percentage of the season. They shot 61 percent in a 90-63 victory against Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne on Dec. 13.

Senior guard Ellen Canale said the key to the good shooting percentage was the team’s ability to get to the basket consistently on the night and getting the ball inside to Galligan and Kloak.

“You shoot 56 percent because you have (Kloak and Galligan) in the post dominating and with their strength and height we had an advantage there,” Canale said, who finished with nine points. “The guards had been in a slump, and we have been in the gym all week making sure we get our shots off.”

The Panthers’ defense combined to hold Tennessee Tech to only 35 percent shooting. Golden Eagles’ senior guard Blair Bowens, the team’s leading scorer and the Ohio Valley Conference’s second-leading 3-point shooter finished with 14 points on 5-of-15 shooting, including only 2-of-7 from 3-point range.

Eastern continues its four-game home stand on Saturday as they host Jacksonville State at 3 p.m. in Lantz Arena.

Standings

Team / OVC / Overall

Murray State / 8-1 / 13-6

Eastern Illinois / 8-2 / 14-7

Morehead State / 7-3 / 13-9

Tennessee State / 7-3 / 11-10

Austin Peay / 7-3 / 11-10

Southeast Missouri / 5-4 / 9-10

Eastern Kentucky / 3-7 / 6-13

Tennessee Tech / 2-8 / 4-17

Jacksonville State / 1-9 / 4-16

Tennessee Martin / 0-9 / 2-17

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