The Southern Illinois-Edwardsville women’s basketball team closed out the first half on an 18-6 run Eastern would never recover from in the Panthers’ 65-48 loss on Saturday at Lantz Arena.

Heading into the game, Eastern coach Debbie Black told her team that it was going to be a tough, physical team to play against.

“I said it all week. They are physical,” Black said. “One thing we did challenge our players was that you have to be ready. They play hard. Basically, they come at you and don’t foul, because they are the more aggressive team.”

The Panthers were awarded a season-low three free-throw attempts on Saturday. Edwardsville converted on 14-of-21 of its free throws.

Edwardsville scored 20 points off of Eastern’s 23 turnovers in the game.

“I am a little disappointed in our first half turnovers,” Black said. “I thought they were pretty much unforced. In the second half we had five in 19 minutes and gave them a second half game.”

Edwardsville junior guard Shronda Butts provided a tough task for the Panthers as she scored 30 points on 13-of-18 shooting.

Eastern senior forward Sabina Oroszova said Butts is a very good, physical and tough player.

“We were struggling to stop her, because she was doing something that we are not used to,” Oroszova said. “She is a very dimensional player. She is a point guard, but she is very physical. She takes people to the hole and uses her body to score.”

The Cougars shot 24-of-59 from the floor including 13-of-30 in the second half.

The Cougars only had one other player in double-digit scoring. Butts finished with 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting on the day.

Edwardsville pushed the lead up to 23 with 3:24 left to play in the second half.

Eastern had a lead in the first half that lasted for less than four minutes.

Despite the loss, Black said it was good for her players to get a learning experience of playing against tough, physical teams.

“I think this is probably the most physical team we have played,” Black said. “I am a big believer you can always take something away from that. They have to learn how to get through the physicality of the game. I think it got in their heads a little bit. I would rather have this happen now. We get a chance to go back there and play (Edwardsville) again. I think they needed to be bruised around a bit.”

The Panthers have six games remaining on their conference schedule, two of which are at home.

The Panthers are sitting eighth place in the Ohio Valley Conference. They are a game and half ahead of Eastern Kentucky. Eastern beat the Colonels earlier this season which gives them the tie breaker.

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