CHARLESTON, Ill. – Ta'Kenya Nixon's jumper in the middle of the lane that would have sent the game into overtime rimmed out as time expired, the final play of a back-and-forth affair that saw Eastern Illinois women's basketball come up on the short end of a 65-63 score with Indiana State Saturday evening at Lantz Arena.

The loss snapped the Panthers' 11-game nonconference home court win streak, which dated back to December 2007. The Sycamores (8-1) were also the last nonconference team to win at Lantz.

 

The game featured 14 ties and nine lead changes, including 11 and eight in the second half, respectively.

 

Kelsey Luna missed only her second free throw of the season with seven seconds remaining in the game. Chantelle Pressley rebounded and threw an outlet pass to Nixon, who drove into the lane and got off a turnaround jump shot. The ball did a 360 around the rim and spun out as the final buzzer sounded.

Maggie Kloak led EIU (5-5) with a season-high 19 points and seven rebounds, connecting on 7-of-11 from the field. Nixon added 17 points, six rebounds and seven assists. Eastern's point guard only committed one turnover in 34 minutes and helped limit ISU's top player, Luna, to 12 points on 2-of-11 shooting from the field.

 

“To put a freshman on their best player and trust her to guard the kid, she was extremely disciplined at everything I wanted her to do,” EIU head coach Brady Sallee said. “There was one time that she didn't guard a screen right and luckily Luna missed [the shot]. I thought her athleticism and quickness was really key.”

But the Sycamores featured a very balanced scoring attack. Taylor Whitley led five ISU players in double-figures with 14 points off the bench. Brittany Schoen connected on three of her team's four 3-pointers and finished with 11 points. She gave ISU the lead for good with a 3-pointer at the 4:52 mark.

 

Ashley Thomas connected on three of EIU's five 3-pointers, including the 100th of her career, and chipped in 11 points. The Panthers' starters accounted for 54 of the 63 points.

Eastern trailed by eight points with two minutes and 22 seconds remaining but cut the deficit to one twice. Kelsey Wyss hit a big 3-pointer, Kloak had a putback basket and Nixon was 4-of-4 at the free throw line in the final minute.

 

Indiana State built its eight-point lead with a 10-1 run. The Panthers suffered through a five-minute field goal drought during that stretch. Wyss ended that with her 3-pointer at the two-minute mark.

 

Eastern's biggest lead of the second half was four, at 40-36 after Sydney Mitchell connected on a 3-pointer with 12 minutes and 17 seconds remaining in the game. The Sycamores answered with back-to-back baskets from Shannon Thomas to tie the score. The lead changed hands three times until ISU surged ahead with its 10-1 run.

 

Indiana State's only lead of the first half turned out to be the halftime score. Whitley connected on a jumper on her team's final possession of the half to put ISU up 27-26 going to the locker room.

 

The Panthers opened the game with an 8-0 spurt, with Kloak and Thomas accounting for all eight points. The Sycamores didn't score until the 16:22 mark but eventually put together an 11-3 run to tie the game at 13-13. Mitchell's putback basket with 10 minutes and 46 seconds remaining was EIU's only field goal during a stretch of over six minutes.

 

Both teams shot the ball more efficiently in the second half after posting a 29 percent clip in the opening 20 minutes. Indiana State shot 50 percent in the second half, EIU 40 percent.

 

“I think we settled for some shots [in the first half],” Sallee said. “They were switching everything we were doing and trying to force us to shoot guarded jump shots. We decided to screen a little bit differently and we told them where they needed to look for those screens. I thought we did a better job getting the ball into the post. Clearly, Maggie played a wail of a game and we got great production of that position.”

The Panthers are scheduled to have next week off for final exams on campus before returning to action Sunday, Dec. 20 for a road game at Illinois-Chicago. Tipoff at the UIC Pavilion is slated for 3 p.m.

More Info: Contact Ben Turner, Asst. SID