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CHARLESTON, Ill. – Eastern Illinois fell behind early Sunday afternoon and could not recover from a 1-for-18 shooting performance in the first 12 minutes as the Panthers lost to Saint Louis, 63-49, at Lantz Arena.
 
The Billikens jumped out to a 5-0 lead and slowly pulled away as they improved to 6-6 on the season.  EIU dropped its sixth straight game falling to 3-10 on the year.  The Panthers open Ohio Valley Conference play Thursday afternoon hosting Tennessee Tech at 1 p.m. 
 
Jenny Vliet hit a 3-pointer to open the SLU scoring with 18:17 to play in the first half.  Sadie Stipanovich extended the early lead to 5-0 with a lay-up with 17:25 to play.   EIU's first points came on free throws by Sabina Oroszova with 16:32 to play.
 
Erica Brown cut the Billikens lead to 5-4 with a jumper at 16:09.  EIU would not score or hit a field goal again until the 7:41 mark of the first half when Oroszova drained a jumper from the base line.  The bucket ended a 16-0 run by Saint Louis as they led 21-6.
 
The Panthers cut the lead to nine points on a pair of free throws by Shakita Cox with 1:32 to play as SLU led 27-18.  Erin Nelson responded with a pair of 3-pointers as the Billikens closed the half with an 8-2 run to lead 35-20 at the half. 
 
Saint Louis was able to keep the lead around 15 points most of the second half as they led by as many as 17 points on four occasions.  Brown's jumper with 3:26 to play cut the lead back to single digits at 52-43.  Following a defensive stop, EIU turned the ball over on an offensive foul ending any chances of a late comeback as Jackie Kemph answered with a jumper and the Billikens made six free throws to close out the final two minutes.
 
Brown and Oroszova both finished with 16 points to lead EIU while Oroszova had ten rebounds.  In the game Oroszova went over the 1,000 point mark for her career.  EIU shot 29 percent for the game with a 24 percent clip in the first half and 35 percent in the second half.
 
Denisha Womack led Saint Louis with 11 points off the bench.  Jamesia Price added ten.  SLU shot 44 percent for the game.