The Eastern women’s basketball team scored a season-low in the first half Saturday against Ohio Valley Conference foe Jacksonville State.

The Panthers shot 29 percent from the field (8-of-28) and scored 16 points in the first half en route to a 61-46 loss to the Gamecocks on Saturday, who rank fourth in the OVC in scoring defense, allowing 69.9 points per game.

Eastern guard Katlyn Payne said the Panther low scoring came from the Jacksonville State game plan, which was to not let her touch the ball.

“Jacksonville’s game plan was to double Sabi and to not even let me touch the ball and to clog the lane so Jordyne (Crunk) could not drive,” she said. “They made it extremely hard to score.”

Payne and Crunk were held scoreless in the first half for the first time all season, shooting a combined 0-of-9 and Sabina Oroszova was held to six points on 3-of-7 shooting.

The Gamecocks got out to an early 24-10 lead after a 17-6 run capped off by a 3-point shot made by Candace Morton.

Morton finished the game leading all scorers with 16 points on 5-of-13 shooting, including 2-of-5 from 3-point range.

The Gamecocks finished the first half up 33-16 and Payne said Eastern coach Debbie Black wanted her team to know that it was unacceptable to be down by that much and to go out and win the second half.

The Panthers scored 30 points in the second half on 11-of-28 shooting including 3-of-7 from the 3-point line, but it was not enough to overcome the hefty halftime deficit.

Payne said the Panthers played inside out and were starting to drive the ball more in the second half, which attributed to the better second half for Eastern.

Payne scored seven points on 2-of-11 shooting, including 1-of-6 from three.

“I was getting great looks, but my shot would not fall,” she said. “My team tried to get me the ball, but it was just not my day.”

The Panthers would cut the Gamecock lead down to eight with three minutes remaining in the second half, but that is as close as they would get.

Jacksonville State would close the game on a 10-3 run, capped off on a layup by Miranda Cantrell.

Cantrell finished the game with eight points on 4-of-12 shooting.

Oroszova led the Panthers with 16 points on 7-of-17 shooting and had 13 rebounds She has scored in double digits in every game this season, but one, where she scored seven against the University of Alabama-Birmingham

Eastern falls to 7-8 on the season and 2-2 in OVC play and will travel to Tennessee Tech on Monday to take on the Golden Eagles at 7 p.m.

Bob Reynolds can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].