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CHARLESTON, Ill. – As Eastern Illinois women's basketball hits the road for the final week of the regular season, the Panthers will be in search of a bounce-back victory Thursday against Austin Peay.

 

Tipoff is set for 5:15 p.m. at the Dunn Center in Clarksville, Tenn. Eastern (20-8, 13-3 OVC) then concludes its regular-season schedule with a Saturday evening game at Tennessee State in Nashville, with the goal of returning to the Music City next week for the final two rounds of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament at the Sommet Center.

 

The Panthers will head to the Volunteer State trailing leading-league Murray State (14-2 OVC) by one game in the standings, and leading third-place TSU (12-4 OVC) by one game as well. Murray could clinch at least a share of the OVC regular-season crown and the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament with a home win against Morehead State (10-6 OVC) Thursday. Tennessee State also hosts Southeast Missouri (10-6 OVC) Thursday. SEMO and Morehead enter the final weekend tied for fourth place, although Morehead owns the head-to-head tiebreaker.

 

Eastern has won four straight against Austin Peay (13-14, 9-7 OVC), including the first meeting this season. However, nearly 11 weeks have passed since EIU defeated the Lady Govs, 80-71, Dec. 6 at Lantz Arena.

 

Since then, both of EIU's opponents this week have bolstered their rotations with the addition of Division I transfers that became eligible at the semester. Brooke Faulkner (6.8 ppg, 24 3s) transferred to APSU from Western Kentucky and TSU's Jasmine Smith (11.1 ppg, 10.1 rpg) did likewise from Louisville.

 

The Panthers saw their program-record 20-game home win streak end Saturday with an overtime loss to Murray State. Last season, EIU posted a convincing win at Austin Peay after losing another first-place showdown at home, a four-point defeat to eventual 2008 regular-season champ Southeast Missouri.

 

Rachel Galligan has put together two of the finest efforts of her career away from Lantz in Clarksville. In a 79-61 victory in 2007, she posted a 23-point, 11-rebound double-double in only 22 minutes. Last season she scored 26 points on 10-of-14 shooting, as EIU won 75-52.

 

Galligan also scored the Panthers' first 10 points of the second half in the December win vs. Austin Peay this season. Eastern led by as many as 19 early in the second half, but the Lady Govs rallied and got as close as six with two minutes and 15 seconds remaining.

 

Austin Peay has experienced some ups and downs over the last month. The Lady Govs swept their Eastern Kentucky-Morehead State road trip the final week of January – EIU was the only other team to accomplish that feat this season – on the way to posting a five-game win streak. However, APSU has now lost four straight after dropping both ends of last week's Jacksonville State-Tennessee Tech swing, losing to a pair of teams it leads in the standings.

 

Ashley Herring led the Lady Govs with 33 points in the first meeting with EIU, posting the highest point total by an opposing player this season on the way to taking home OVC Player of the Week honors. Nearly three months later, Herring (11.8 ppg) now ranks second in the team in scoring. April Thomas is tops in scoring (12.7 ppg) and rebounding (9.0 rpg), recording four straight double-doubles and 12 total this season.

Eastern has already clinched a home game in the first round of the OVC Tournament, which is scheduled for Tuesday, March 3 at 7 p.m. Should the Panthers maintain their current second-place standing and claim the No. 2 seed in the tournament, they'll host seventh-seeded Tennessee Tech in the first round. That scenario could become a reality Thursday with an EIU win and a TSU loss to SEMO.

More Info: Contact Ben Turner, Asst. SID