A storm was brewing over the last three weeks of the Eastern women’s basketball team’s season and it culminated Friday in Nashville with a tornado warning.

The Panthers’ season, which built great expectations with a 20-4 record to start the season, got cloudy when the team finished the regular season 22-7, losing three of their last five games; however, the team remained hopeful and confident it could win the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament this weekend.

Eastern head coach Brady Sallee said the week leading up to the tournament that the team is excited to make this season one of the best ever – by winning the tournament and advancing to the NCAA Tournament.

It didn’t happen, but the team is still playing. The Panthers will play in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament this month.

Even so, it’s not the end the team or its fans were hoping for, but you can’t say they didn’t see this coming.

Nobody on the team was under the impression they’d breeze through the tournament and be playing in the NCAA Tournament, and it definitely wasn’t a sure thing.

The Panthers were dominating teams until Feb. 11. Up to Feb. 11, when they lost to Tennessee-Martin in overtime, the Panthers had only lost four games (three of them each by four points or less).

Then the storm came. Once February hit, competition increased drastically.

Tennessee-Martin beat them in overtime after having hit a buzzer beating three-pointer to take the game into overtime.

Eastern beat Tennessee Tech by one point on the road, forcing a turnover on the Golden Eagles last possession. The back-to-back road games against Tennessee-Martin and Tennessee Tech was something no other OVC team had to do.

The Panthers lost their last home game to Southern Illinois-Edwardsville by five points in an uncharacteristic game.

The Panthers went back on the road and lost to Morehead State by two points, then to Eastern Kentucky and won by three.

Then came Nashville, and the most unique basketball experience most in attendance and playing in the game have ever had. In Sallee’s 19 years of coaching, he said he’s never had an experience like it.

Momentum and energy spread like wildfire in the second half, but a tornado interrupted it all. Officials had to stop the game with 6:09 left in the game and move everybody into the basement.

It was one of the most confusing times I’ve ever had covering a game. All we knew was there was a tornado warning in the county and we weren’t safe in the arena.

Many of the thousand people in the basement were on cell phones, texting updates on Twitter or trying to figure out what the weather radar looked like.

Each teams’ cheerleaders stayed grouped in circles and the teams came to the basement and formed a huddle themselves.

Eastern’s huddle was right in the middle of everything. We (Doug T. Graham, Danny Damiani and I) stayed near the Panthers’ huddle. Danny and Doug took photos of the team.

After Sallee gave them what looked like the pep talk of the century, the players sat down together and tried to stay calm by talking with one another. Meanwhile, Sallee walked around looking for his family, telling his daughters to stay with their mother. He said he was worried about making sure his family was safe.

After a little more than 20 minutes, someone announced we could go back upstairs to the union, the heavy rain and orange skies had cleared up outside and it was safe to start the game – only after about a 10 minute warm-up period for the teams.

Once the game started, things only got crazier. Two players went down with injuries. Tech’s T’Keyah Williams went down late in the second half with a leg injury. She was out the rest of the game. Eastern’s Sydney Mitchell went out of the game hobbling with a leg injury in overtime.

Both teams put it all on the line to try to win the game. Countless times after the tornado delay, a player trailed the play because she dove on the floor after a loose ball or rebound.

But Tech won. Tech took all of the momentum Eastern gained at the end of the second half and stormed away to the win like a tornado.

As quickly as Eastern built up excitement about the season, it was all gone. The way this season ended, especially with the tornado delay Friday, was unexpected.

Now going in the WNIT game over Spring Break, I don’t know what to expect and I bet the team doesn’t either.

After all, looking back on Friday’s game and the way the dominos fell on the season, everyone is left wondering what the heck happened.

Alex McNamee can be reached at 581-7942 or [email protected].