The Eastern women’s basketball team mounted a serious comeback in the third quarter of Saturday’s game against Morehead State. But Morehead State had a serious lead, and the Panthers’ comeback bid proved to be too little, too late as the Eagles picked up a 67-57 win.

Morehead State held an 18-point lead with 6:52 remaining in the third quarter, and from the looks of it, Eastern was pretty much dead in the water.

But Eastern’s energy picked up.

Karle Pace made a jumper, Grace Lennox made two driving layups and Kira Arthofer made a three-pointer. Now with 3:10 remaining, Morehead State’s lead was cut to single digits.

Eastern brought Morehead State’s lead down to 49-44 when Pace made another three-point shot as the third quarter ended. The fourth quarter began, and so did the mistakes for Eastern. Taylor Steele and Arthofer each contributed a turnover to begin the quarter, and Morehead State’s lead eventually swelled back up into double-digits, where it stayed.

Eastern felt like it missed an opportunity.

“Yeah I thought, boy the third quarter, we got early, I don’t know what they went up. It felt like 16 or 18 or something, and then we just fought so hard to get back in it,” said Eastern head coach Matt Bollant. “Then we had an open look to cut it to two, and we just didn’t quite finish it the way we needed to.”

Eastern and Morehead State both played incredibly active on defense and  were energetic overall throughout the entire game. It led to some big shots by both teams, but also a handful of mistakes on both sides.

Eastern had 22 turnovers, and Morehead State had 15. The Eagles committed an egregious amount of travels in the game, and Eastern had a number of ill-advised passes late in the game.

“I felt like today we were so excited to play, and some of that excitement we kind of overdid things and tried to do too much at times,” Bollant said.

Some of the energy Eastern brought may have been carried over from its Thursday win over Eastern Kentucky; some of it may have just been from playing in front of a decent-sized home crowd.

“We came out with energy. I don’t think that was a problem of ours,” senior Grace Lennox said. “Everyone came out ready to play, and that was really positive.”

That energy showed itself throughout the game. Pace, who scored a game-high 21 points, was jumping up and down after making her three-pointer to close the third quarter, and the bench was loud during the comeback.    

This was the second game in a row that Pace led in scoring. She had 29 on Thursday.

Senior Jalisha Smith was inserted back into the starting lineup for Eastern; she scored two points and grabbed five rebounds in 20 minutes. It was just her second start of the season.

“I’m just happy that (Bollant) is able to trust me now,” Smith said. “I just try to make him proud because he trusts me, so like trusts me to do what I am good at, so I am going to offer that.”

The loss dropped Eastern to 3-7 in conference play. They play Murray State on Thursday.

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