Box Score |
Photo Gallery (By
Sandy King)
CHARLESTON, Ill. - The Eastern Illinois women's basketball team fell behind early and could not seem to mount a comeback Wednesday afternoon losing to Cleveland State 66-56. With the loss the Panthers drop to 4-6 on the year while CSU improves to 4-4.
Three Panthers finished the game in double-figures led by
Grace Lennox with 15 points.
Erica Brown recorded her first double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Carmen Tellez earned career highs in points and assists against the Vikings with 12 points and five dimes to lead the team.
The Vikings took the lead early in the game leading 7-3 following a three-pointer from CSU's Khayla Livingston at the 7:35 mark in the first quarter. EIU battled back to tie the game at 10-10 thanks to a layup from Brown with 5:36 left to go in the period.
From there it was all Cleveland State as the Vikings closed out the opening period on a 13-2 run to head into the second quarter leading the Panthers 23-12.
CSU shot 62.5 percent in the first quarter compared to EIU's 25 percent.
EIU cut into the Viking lead in the opening minutes of the second quarter going on a 7-2 run to bring the Panthers within six points following a
Jennifer Nehls bucket to make it 25-19 with 7:59 left in the half. Nehls finished the game with eight points and a career high nine rebounds.
Back-to-back buckets put Cleveland State back ahead by 10 points as the Vikings pushed their lead to as high as 15 points in the quarter after a free throw shot by Alexis Eckles made it 38-23 with 1:09 left in the half.
Zharia Lenoir's buzzer-beating three-pointer to close out the half sent EIU into the locker room trailing 38-26.
A 9-0 run early in the second half pulled the Panthers back into the game as Nehls capped off the run with a layup at the 6:17 mark making the score 42-37. CSU answered right back with two straight buckets to reclaim their 10 point lead as both teams fought back-and-forth throughout the rest of the period with Cleveland State leading 52-43 heading into the fourth quarter.
It was another back-and-forth quarter for both teams, but EIU could not seem to break the 10-point cushion built by Cleveland State throughout the final period. Tellez drilled one of her four three-pointers in the game as the final buzzer sounded to secure the final score of 66-56.
The Panthers shot only 28.8 percent from the floor for the game, their lowest shooting percentage in a game so far this season.
Cleveland State was led by Ashanti Abshaw with 18 points followed by Jade Ely with 10. CSU finished the game out-scoring EIU in the paint 38-14.
EIU now heads out on the road for a three-game stretch starting at Western Illinois this Saturday at 4:30 p.m.