The bus ride home from Cape Girardeau, Mo. came with a little extra satisfaction for Eastern women’s basketball coach Lee Buchanan.

Not only did his team come home with a 64-46 win over Southeast Missouri to remain in first place in the Ohio Valley Conference, but he could breathe a little easier knowing five of the remaining six regular season games are at home, in Lantz Arena.

The Panthers have only had four home games since Dec. 7, so they would become accustomed to long bus rides and different restaurants every weekend. 

Now, those days are behind them.

“It’s going to be wonderful,” Buchanan said. “We have put in the miles this year.”

The Panthers are looking at four consecutive home games coming up, but were focused on leaving the Southeast Missouri game with a win. 

They led by seven points going into halftime, although they struggled shooting the ball. 

They were 10-of-29 from the field, including 1-of-9 from 3-point range; however, the Panthers’ defense kept them in the game.

Amid offensive struggles, Eastern held Southeast Missouri to 9-of-31 from the field and 21 points in the first half.

“All week we focused on offense and we came out and played really well defensively,” Buchanan said. “You can’t ever figure this game out.”

But Buchanan wasn’t surprised his defense had a good game — after all, Southeast Missouri had a glaring weakness offensively.

“They’re very set oriented,” Buchanan said.

Southeast Missouri makes its living on running plays, so when the Panthers’ defense challenged them to improvise from the set plan, they struggled — some players more than others.

The Redhawks’ Bailie Roberts, who is one of the team’s top scorers game in and game out, was held to four points on 2-of-16 shooting. 

She had more turnovers, than points.

Patricia Mack, who did not play in the two teams’ first matchup this season, was held to 1-of-5 shooting. 

Buchanan said the defense kept her out of her comfort zone.

“The Mack kid was settling for jump shots, which is not her game,” Buchanan said.

Mack took two three pointers in the game, missing them both.

Only one Redhawk scored in double figures, as the Panthers held Southeast Missouri to 46 total points. 

Jordan Hunter scored 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting.

With a small lead at halftime, though, the Panthers weren’t comfortable. 

They wanted to avoid a Southeast Missouri run, like the Redhawks put up on Eastern in the previous matchup.

“SEMO likes to come out in the second half and try to come at you hard and fast,” Buchanan said. “We did a good job of taking that back to them.”

The Panthers strung together a 9-0 run between the 16:57 mark and 15:17 mark to burst out to a 16-point lead the Redhawks couldn’t come back from.

As soon as the Redhawks cut the lead to nine points with a little over 10 minutes left, the Panthers’ senior guard Kelsey Wyss hit back-to-back three pointers to re-extend it to a 15-point lead.

The Panthers are coming home to play a lower division team, Oakland City, on Tuesday. 

The game is set to tipoff at 7 p.m. in Lantz Arena.

Alex McNamee can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].