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CHARLESTON, Ill. – Eastern Illinois shook off a sluggish first half as the Panthers won their third straight home game with a 53-48 win over Southeast Missouri on Saturday afternoon at Lantz Arena.

Both teams struggled to score in the first half as EIU led 19-16 at the half. EIU improved to 10-12 overall, 5-6 in the OVC. SEMO fell to 7-16, 3-7 in the OVC.

SEMO led by six points with 9:02 to play in the first half as Patricia Mack hit a 3-pointer to put the Redhawks up 10-6. EIU slowly cut into the SEMO lead taking a 15-14 lead of their own with 1:36 to play in the first on a Morgan Palombizio lay-up.

The Redhawks open the second half with an 8-2 run as Jordan Hunter hit a lay-up at 17:03 to put SEMO up 24-21. Hunter had a jumper with 10:17 remaining that put SEMO up 35-30.

EIU tied the game at 37-37 with 6:12 to go and took a 39-37 lead at 5:12 as Sabina Oroszova had back-to-back jumpers for the Panthers. Oroszova was one of three EIU players to finish in double figures with 11 points.

An old fashioned three point play by Olivia Hackmann put SEMO up 40-39 on the next possession. Jordyne Crunk answered with an old fashioned three point play of her own for EIU and EIU never trailed again. Crunk finished with 14 points and eight assists.

EIU shot 46 percent from the floor in the second half to finish at 37 percent for the game. Katlyn Payne led EIU in scoring with 15 points while pulling down eight rebounds.

Hackmann led SEMO in scoring with 11 points while Mack had 11 rebounds. SEMO finished the game shooting 36 percent from the floor, the 11th time this season EIU has held an opponent below 40 percent shooting.

EIU returns to action next Saturday with a 5:15 p.m. game at Murray State.