It may have been a dream and a goal to be in Assembly Hall, playing in the second round of a postseason tournament, but anybody could tell from the expressions on Eastern seniors Ta’Kenya Nixon’s and Mariah King’s faces that they expected to win.

They almost did, too, holding the Illinois women’s basketball team on the edge of defeat for all but maybe five minutes of Monday night’s 62-54 loss in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament.

Nixon and King were thankful in the postgame press conference, but their Eastern women’s basketball coach, Lee Buchanan, assured everyone that they wanted more.

“We believed we could just keep winning,” Buchanan said.

Illinois head coach Matt Bollant said his team probably wouldn’t have won the game a couple months ago, when they didn’t have the heart to make a comeback.

“We just didn’t have a lot of joy,” Bollant said. “(Our players) were stressed and weren’t responding well to our instruction.”

Eastern took a 3-point lead into the halftime locker room, leading for all but 1:58 of the first half.

The Panthers jumped out to an eight-point lead in the first 5:54 of the second half and then Illinois’ physical advantage and defense kicked in.

The Illini fought back to take a 40-39 lead with 10:40 to play, but it was quickly taken away by King, who scored 10 of the Panthers’ first 12 points in the half.

Less than three minutes later, Illinois took a three-point lead on a 3-pointer by Amber Moore, which changed the game.

“A team will come all the way up next to (the lead), but won’t make the shot to take the lead,” Bollant said. “To take the lead can really change momentum.”

The shot turned the tide, giving the Illini an advantage and shaking the Panthers’ confidence.

Eastern’s offense, which had been so good in the first half, committed sloppy turnovers in the second half against Illinois’ full-court pressure.

“I thought we got a little bit lazy with some passes,” Buchanan said. “Illinois cranked up their defense.”

Nixon said the Panthers knew they were going to face full-court pressure in the game, but Illinois’ height and athleticism was too much to overcome.

Buchanan said the Panthers prepared a lot for the pressure defense the past few days, but could not prepare for the physical advantage.

“We’re just not built strong like that and physical like that,” Buchanan said. “It’s just not our game. They play in the Big Ten, you have to have players like that.”

The Panthers committed 22 turnovers in the game, but still had a chance to tie the game with 2:02 remaining.

Nixon, who was held to only three points in the second half, drove to the hoop and her shot was partially blocked, although Buchanan had a different view of the play.

“She did exactly what she was supposed to do,” Buchanan said. “I thought she should’ve been shooting free throws.”

But the game was all-around a physical contest and King said she was asking Buchanan, at one point, to talk to the referees about calling more fouls.

“It was tough down there,” King said.

In the second half, the Illini started coming up with loose balls — something Eastern was doing in the first half.

Illinois had 19 of its 33 rebounds in the second half.

Nixon said she could hear Illinois’ coach pleading with his team from the sideline to “just find a way” to win the game.

“At one point in the second half they made the decision that they wanted to win more,” Nixon said. “They came up with loose balls. Rebounds hit everybody’s hands and they came up with them.”

The ball bounced Illinois’ way late in the game, but not for a lack of effort on Eastern’s end, Buchanan said.

“We played our hearts out,” Buchanan said. “We have to nickname a lot of our players Mop and Broom — they spent a lot of time out on the floor.”

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