After a two-game road trip that saw Eastern (10-8, 6-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference) take first place in the OVC conference, the Panthers return home for two games beginning tonight against Murray State (8-10, 3-4 OVC) 5:30 p.m. in Lantz Arena.

“We’re excited to play in front of our family and friends again,” senior guard Ashley Thomas said. “We play really well in Lantz, so we always love being at home.”

Eastern is 5-2 at home this season and is looking to keep protecting its stomping grounds. According to head coach Brady Sallee, the Panthers have been through three good days of practice leading up to the game.

“We’ve focused quite a bit on what Murray State does and defending with that in mind,” Sallee said. “I think we’ve gotten better from three days of working and we understand what they do and how we have to defend it.”

Although Murray State is the seventh-place team in the OVC, Sallee said he still expects a competitive matchup.

“I’ve been really impressed with what I’ve seen on film with them because they are running the same system even though they lost some great players,” Sallee said.

Sallee said three of the players who have stepped up for the Racers are sophomore guard Rachael Isom and senior guards Mallory Luckett and Kayla Vance.

Isom leads the team in points per game with 12.4. Vance and Luckett are the team’s other double-digit scorers, averaging 10.9 ppg and 10.2 ppg respectively.

“They’re going to give us some problems driving the ball,” Sallee said. “They can all shoot it, and probably the most nerve-racking thing is that they’re all thinking, ‘score,’ every time they touch it.”

Senior forward Maggie Kloak said no matter who Murray State has on its team, Eastern will not switch up its defensive mindset.

“We play our defense every night and we don’t try to change things up no matter how many scorers they have – that’s the way we play,” Kloak said.

Sallee said the Racers’ offense is similar to Morehead State’s because it is able to shoot from beyond the arc any time it wants.

“All of their perimeters are going to catch it and look to score, but they throw the dribble-drive in more and look to score,” Sallee said.

While Eastern will have to control the Racers’ shooters, Sallee said there are many other aspects of the game that the Panthers will have to control.

“We’re going to have to defend them without fouling,” Sallee said. “We’re going to have to defend the three and the drive. At the end of the day, we’ve got to keep them off of the boards and that’s not going to be an easy task.”

Eastern was not satisfied with drawing even in rebounds against Morehead State on Saturday, 38-38, so the team has been working on it in practice, according to Thomas.

“We wanted to make sure that we win the battle of the boards,” Thomas said. “That’s always a big focal point of practice. We’ve worked on our defense taking care of the paint and the post and just making them shoot the shots we want them to.”

Alex McNamee can be reached at 581-7944 or [email protected].