Eastern women’s basketball scored 100 points in regulation for the first time since 2018, beating Morehead State 100-46 Thursday night at Groniger Arena.
The last time Eastern scored 100 points in regulation against an Ohio Valley Conference opponent was Dec. 10, 2005, against Tennessee State.
Senior forward Macy McGlone said they were counting down the points to 100.
“We were really excited,” McGlone said. “All of us were sitting on the bench, we were like, ‘Oh my gosh, three more points, two more points.’ So, we were really excited we got that 100. It was cool to see it on the board because we’ve never seen it before.”
Eastern (12-6, 9-0) shot 54% from the field and 54% from three-point range. The Panthers were able to score 10 three-pointers. A major contributing factor to this was redshirt freshman forward Georgia Cox.
Cox scored 18 points while going 5-for-5 from three-point range. Prior to this game, she had only scored one three-pointer this season and had no games where she scored in double digits.
She said that she got confidence from the rest of her team.
“Yeah, I haven’t done that before in my career,” Cox said. “So, it’s just great. I felt the energy a lot from my team. [Kiyley Flowers] said, ‘shoot it.’ So, I just had confidence the whole game from the rest of my team. So, that’s how I was meant to get it done.”
Eastern got out to a fast start against the Eagles (7-12, 2-7), finishing the first quarter up 44-24. This let the starters sit for most of the second half and players like Cox get a chance to play.
Senior guard Kiyley Flowers said that the starters on the bench were so happy with the production that the bench players made.
“The family that we have here, the environment that we have here, it’s just we want to see everybody be successful,” Flowers said. “So for Alana [Phillipo] to get her first three fall, for Georgia [Cox] just to go out there and shoot, it’s like that’s the stuff that we see in practice. It’s like we just want them to have confidence. Just like we have confidence when we go out there.”
Eastern went on multiple runs including a 16-2 run to end the first quarter. The Panthers didn’t stop there as they had a 23-4 run through six minutes in the third quarter and opened the fourth quarter with a 21-4 run.
McGlone attributed the fast start and the energy they had all game to being back home with the fans and the band in attendance.
“I mean, I think we were just ready to play at home,” McGlone said. “This is our first game at home that we’ve had students and the band back, so I think we were just really excited and ready to go, and I think that affected us in a good way.”
McGlone finished the game with 20 points, seven rebounds and four blocks.
She and Flowers both said that the 100 points felt nice, but that Saturday’s game against the University of Southern Indiana is now on their mind.
The Screaming Eagles won the OVC and knocked out Eastern from the OVC tournament last year.
Head coach Marqus McGlothan said that the energy that was brought to this game needs to replicated on Saturday.
“Good momentum for us to get ready for the next game,” McGlothan said. “So for us just to get ready to kind of finish out our first round of conference.”
Eastern currently sits alone in first place in the OVC. The Panthers will play Southern Indiana Saturday at Groniger Arena.
Tipoff is set for 1 p.m.
Patrick Schmitz can be reached at 581-2812 or at pfschmitz@eiu.edu.