TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Indiana State's Kelsie Cooley scored a career-high 24 points on 12 field goals and helped the Sycamores outlast Eastern Illinois women's basketball, 64-51, Friday evening at the Hulman Center.

Ellen Canale led EIU with 13 points. Rachel Galligan and Dominique Sims both finished with 10. Galligan scored her 1,5000th career point in the loss.

The Panthers (8-4) trailed by as many as 14 in the second half but cut the ISU lead to five in the final five minutes. Indiana State (3-6) closed the game with nine unanswered points to hand EIU its first double-figure loss of the season.

 

The Sycamores turned 13 offensive rebounds into 14 second-chance points and scored 20 points off 16 EIU turnovers.

 

“They definitely hit some big shots,” EIU head coach Brady Sallee said. “Those are things that we have been doing at homes to other teams. I thought we got out-toughed a little bit, which is something we're not accustomed to doing. We talked about winning the rebound and free throw battles. We lost both those. You're not going to win too many games when you lose those categories. Those are the things that we had been dominating as a team. You give them credit for taking care of some rebounding stuff. The hustle points, the toughness points – those kinds of things got us tonight.”

 

Eastern used a 10-2 run to make it a game heading into the final five minutes. Sims scored eight of the 10 points, connecting on a pair of 3-pointers in less than two minutes. But Galligan's putback basket with 3:53 remaining turned out to be EIU's final field goal.

 

The second half featured quite a bit of back-and-forth action. Cooley scored ISU's first eight points of the second half, connecting on two field goals on her team's first possession to stretch an eight-point halftime lead to 12. An offensive rebound on a missed free throw kept the ball on the Sycamores' end of the floor.

 

Eastern initially pulled within single-digits with an 8-2 run. But Indiana State answered with five quick points. The Panthers counterpunched with six unanswered points only to ISU see push the lead back to 13.

 

Eastern took an early lead with a 10-2 run in the first half. Four different Panthers scored during the spurt. Indiana State answered with a 9-2 surge and then took the lead for good by outscoring EIU 10-2 over the final five minutes of the half.

 

Eastern led by six at the midpoint of the first half but was outscored 20-6 over the final 10 minutes before heading to the locker room.

The Panthers will have nine days off before continuing their five-game road stretch Monday, Dec. 29 at Illinois State. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m.

More Info: Contact Ben Turner, Asst. SID