The Eastern Illinois women’s basketball team knew that execution in the paint and on the glass would be a crucial factor in deciding their matchup with one of the conference’s poorest rebounding teams, UT-Martin, Wednesday night at Lantz arena.

The theory proved to be true, as Eastern scored 26 second chance points and outrebounded UT-Martin by 16, while snapping their four-game losing streak in a 80-70 overtime win.

Eastern pulled down 53 total rebounds as a team, 15 of them offensive.

“They are attacking the glass. I mean we had 53 rebounds, I cant remember the last time we had 53 rebounds,” head coach Debbie Black said.”We out rebounded them by a lot, and we are not that big. So we are starting to get the idea.”

The 15 offensive rebounds translated into 26 second chance points, many of them coming with time winding down in the fourth quarter.

“I think in one possession we might have had three or four looks at the basket and I don’t think we scored, it was kind of a bummer, but, that is still deflating for the other team,” Black said. “Like anything else that’s huge. And I think that’s what we came back to and we talked about it.”

Senior Erica Brown led the way for Eastern on the glass, pulling down 15 rebounds. Junior Grace Lennox and Halle Stull both had nine. Stull with hers in just only 22 minutes played.

“We have been working on rebounding a lot, both on the offensive and defensive end,” Stull said. “Its just a way to get involved in the game and assert yourself in a position to crash into the boards. Its something that everyone can do and we were are hungry for the ball and we were all attacking it, so I thought that was good.”

The good rebounding for Eastern is becoming a trend, as it is something that Black has been drilling into her team’s heads.

“We have really talked about it (rebounding), especially the last three games and we have done it. We noticed that our last three opponents were not terribly great people who box out, and these guys are listening to it,” Black said. “She (Stull) has heard this for two years now, ‘get your ass in and box out’. I just can’t stand it, not boxing out. I just don’t think it is a very hard thing to do.”

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