Boyer scores career high against Austin Peay

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Justin Brown

Sophomore Brittin Boyer takes a shot over Austin Peay’s Tearra Banks Saturday at Lantz Arena. Boyer scored a career high 18 points in the Panthers’ 69-59 loss.

JJ Bullock, Women's Basketball Reporter

After being inserted into the starting lineup for just the second time all season, Eastern sophomore Brittin Boyer had a statement game, scoring a career high 18 points in the team’s loss to Austin Peay Saturday.

The decision to start Boyer was primarily a defensive minded strategy in an effort to shut down Austin Peay center Tearra Banks, which she did limiting her to just nine shot attempts, however, it was Boyer’s offense that ended up standing out.

She shot 9-13 from the field in 34 minutes played en route to her career-high 18 points, taking this game as an opportunity to prove herself.

“Just taking the challenge. I am a kid that when I get in there I try to my role to the best of my ability. So when she (Black) said ‘Brit your starting’ two days ago, I’m like ‘This is my shot. This is my chance to prove myself,’” Boyer said.

“But my teammates did a good job of getting me the ball where I could be successful so it’s not just me. Grace was doing a great job of feeding me the ball. (Van Dyke), whoever it was. So just stepping up and taking that opportunity to show what I can do, and my teammates did a great job of helping me out.”

While Black was disappointed in the game as a whole, watching her team let an early lead slip away; she was impressed with Boyer’s execution of her part of the gameplan.

“Aggressiveness. Her capability of scoring. When Brit looks and is aggressive, that’s what she can do. She can go to the basket, she has a mid-range game. She actually is a playmaker in her own right,” Black said.

“We said we wanted to pull Banks out, particularly and get her to go off the dribble and attack her, which she did. And she finished around the rim, which she really has been working on. So nothing I didn’t know she couldn’t do. But you know what, when she actually does it and it falls in place, its good stuff.”

While many things from the loss can be left to question, the final decision to start Boyer is not one of them.

“It’s a shame we didn’t win the game. Because I think the game plan was right to start her obviously, for reasons of her defensively, more than offensively to tell you the truth,” Black said. “Sometimes you might say, ‘Oh we’re going to give up this for that,’ but Brit proved that she scored 18 points and had four rebounds and did a hell of a job on probably one of the best centers in the league.”

JJ Bullock can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]