EIU women’s basketball was outscored 40-14 in the second half and lost its seventh straight game 70-43 to Southern Illinois Edwardsville Saturday afternoon at First Community Arena in Edwardsville.
The Panthers (4-27, 3-17) went cold from the field in the second half after briefly taking its only lead of the game shortly after the halftime break with a layup by senior guard Tiny Lewis to give Eastern a 31-30 lead.
SIUE (15-15, 8-12) responded with a 21-2 run in the final 9:27 of the third quarter, as the Panthers only bucket after the Lewis layup came amid a 1-for-14 shooting stretch from the floor in the third quarter.
Head coach Marqus McGlothan said that the loss of redshirt junior forward Sydney-James Desroches hurt the Panthers’ ability to stay with the Cougars in the second half.
Desroches played 14 minutes in the first half and was instrumental in Eastern’s 21-9 second quarter to make it 30-29 in favor of SIUE at halftime but has been dealing with knee issues that saw her miss the entire second half.
“We made our run with [Desroches] on the court, and she wasn’t able to play through her injury,” McGlothan said. “So, we pretty much played the majority of that second half with five players.”
The only substitution’s the Panthers made in the second half was to switch out redshirt junior forward Ella Lune with sophomore guard Nyah Hardy for the final 1:15 of the third quarter.
Hardy had to come back out of the game before the start of the fourth quarter because she couldn’t lift her arm above her head after getting hit on a screen, according to McGlothan.
Eastern found itself behind early, as it trailed SIUE 14-4 after the first 5:33 of play. For the fourth time during the current seven-game losing streak, Eastern was unable to score more than 10 points and closed out the first quarter trailing 21-8.
But in the second quarter, Eastern responded with a 19-4 run in 4:51 to tie the game 27-27. The Panthers made seven consecutive shots from the field.
McGlothan gave credit to Desroches and redshirt junior Meioshe Mason, who finished with a team-leading 14 points, for creating mismatches that allowed Eastern’s offense to get the team back into the game.
“She’s becoming more efficient around the basket,” McGlothan said. “I think right now she’s shooting around 40% from the field and she’s got to get up to in the 60s.”
It was the first game back in Edwardsville for junior guard and former Cougar Ava Stoller, who was the other Panther in double figures with 11 points. She had five of Eastern’s 14 points in the second half.
With the win, SIUE clinched a spot in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament. The Cougars finish in a three-way tie in places 7-9, and claim the three way tiebreaker. Southeast Missouri State is the final team in the tournament, and the defending champion Tennessee Tech is the team left out.
Eastern finished in last place in the OVC.
Gabe Newman can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].
