The Eastern women’s basketball team wants to get past its 72-63 loss to Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Wednesday and will turn its head as it heads to Western Illinois on Friday for the Panthers’ second game in three days.

Eastern had 28 turnovers in its Wednesday loss, which is a season high for the Panthers. Eastern coach Debbie Black said that is the one thing she wants to cut down for Friday’s game in Macomb.

“We had an unbelievably, uncharacteristic amount of turnovers with no pressure,” she said. “I am not sure I can really work on it as much as I can show them, but we did everything right in a lot of ways Wednesday. To have 18 turnovers in the first half, unforced and unpressed, that is the biggest area we need to look at.”

With some of the starters not playing well on Friday, after Milwaukee took a 20- point lead late in the second half Black went to her bench.

She put the trust in three freshmen and a sophomore, to attempt to make a late charge at Milwaukee, which they did.

Jalisha Smith, Bh’rea Griffin, Mariah Madison and sophomore Erica Brown, along with Sabina Oroszova were able to cut the lead down to eight late in the second half, but could not get it past that.

Black said she is going to play players that are ready to play.

“I am going to play players that give me effort,” she said. “The players that played at the end of the game played terrific. Those players have been sitting on the bench for seven games, and they stepped up. It really depends on how they respond to it, and that will be seen (Friday).”

Western Illinois comes into the game with a 5-4 record on the season, winning its last two out of three games. Most recently, the Leathernecks defeated Bradley 75-63 in Peoria.

With the Panthers beating the Leathernecks 68-64 last season at Lantz arena, Black knows how good of a team Western can be.

“The thing that is more different that any other team we have played is that they have better post players,” she said. “We haven’t seen too many post games yet. We are going to help out in the post a little more as opposed to playing on the guards. We are going to maintain who we are. I think we are going to have to be aware that our post players have to make sure that they don’t stand behind them and get around them.”

Western is averaging 75 points per game this season, while allowing 66.8 to opponents per game and is shooting 43 percent as a team. Ashley Luke leads the Leathernecks, scoring 17.2 points per game.

With going with a different lineup at the end of the game on Wednesday, Black said she is not making any changes to her starting lineup, because she doesn’t believe in that philosophy.

“I don’t know if that serves a purpose,” she said. “I was always told it is more important how long you play compared to if you start. If you play eight minutes and you’re a started and you play 28 minutes and you’re a sub, why does it matter? There is no difference.”

The Panthers and Leathernecks will tip-off at 7 p.m. Friday at Western Hall in Macomb. The Panthers will host Illinois-Chicago at 2 p.m. Sunday in Lantz Arena.

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