The Eastern women’s basketball team will have a chance to end its long, 19 game losing streak when it takes on Murray State Wednesday.

The Panthers will be taking on an also struggling Racer team. Murray State is sitting at 2-5 in OVC play and 8-13 overall.

Murray State is coming in off a 64-61 loss with Southern Illinois Edwardsville on Saturday. SIUE grabbed a three-point lead with just nine seconds left in the game. The Racers missed their final two shots attempting to send the game into overtime.

Ke’Shuna James is the Racers’ leading scorer averaging 18.9 points per game. James also makes herself present in the paint with 108 rebounds on the year, good enough for second on the team.

Kyra Gulledge is the team’s leading rebounder with 153 on the year, averaging 8.5 per game.

Eastern’s most recent loss came to Austin Peay on Saturday by a score of 80-45. The Panthers were outscored 22-10 in the first quarter, and the Governors never let go of their lead.

Junior guard Phylicia Johnson scored 18 points in the game. Johnson averages 6.4 points per game.

The leading scorer for the Panthers is red-shirt senior Shakita Cox. Cox is averaging 10.2 points per game.

Junior forward Erica Brown is the leading rebounder for the Panthers with 139 on the year, and averages 7.0 per game.

The Panthers are the only team in the Ohio Valley Conference who have not been able to get a conference win. Eastern’s lone win on the year came in the first game of the season against Indiana-Purdue University Indianapolis.

If the season were to end today, the Panthers would not make the OVC tournament at the end of the year as only the top eight teams are admitted.

The game will start at 6 p.m. Wednesday in Murray, Ky.

Sean Hastings can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]