The Eastern women’s basketball team turned the ball over 20 times as they watched Eastern Kentucky pull away for a 19-point victory.

The 20 turnovers in the game resulted in 20 points for Eastern Kentucky, and they outscored Eastern, 28-16, in the fourth quarter to earn the victory. Eastern extends its losing streak to 16 games.

Coach Debbie Black thought the team played well defensively, but it was the turnovers that ultimately cost them.

“The first half, we did a pretty good job defensively, but those 15 turnovers really hurt us,” she said. “You give out 15 turnovers in the first half, and I don’t think they caused them.”

Although the offense was not really there all night, Black said if the turnovers were eliminated they would have had the lead.

“If you can cut those turnovers down, they scored points off those turnovers,” she said. “They were not scoring points, so the fact that we weren’t scoring wouldn’t have mattered and we would’ve still been up a margin.”

Freshman forward Halle Stull had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Other than Stull’s impressive performance, the offense was not there for Eastern on Thursday night.

Stull pointed out that the offense was missing easy baskets.

“Tonight our offense didn’t click I guess,” she said. “Everyone was trying to get each other open and we were trying to work together to open things up, but I guess in the end it just didn’t click and we missed a lot of layups so we have to work on that to get better.”

They played Eastern Kentucky close for three quarters. They were tied at 12 at the end of the first quarter and trailed by just six going into halftime. They headed into the fourth trailing, 47-40.

Black said she thinks the team is over trying and they just need to relax and play. She also pointed out that rebounding was another thing that hurt them.

“Our game plan went great,” she said. “We did everything we needed to except for the turnovers and you knew this team was going to hit you on the glass. Something that has really hurt us all year is rebounding.”

Eastern Kentucky had 19 second-chance points as they had 12 offensive rebounds. Junior guard Phylicia Johnson scored 13 points for Eastern, but the team shot just 33 percent in the game.

Stull said that the defense just broke down at the end and that is how Eastern Kentucky ran away with the game.

“Our defense kind of broke down a little bit and when that happened we just kind of broke down and stopped boxing out,” she said.

Michaela Hunter had a game-high 23 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists for Eastern Kentucky. The team shot 50 percent in the second half that fueled a big lead near the end.

Eastern is now 1-16 overall on the season and 0-5 in the OVC. They remain at home to take on Morehead State Saturday at 1 p.m.

Mark Shanahan can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]