Box Score |
Photo Gallery (by
Sandy King)
CHARLESTON, Ill. - It was a tale of two halves Saturday afternoon as SIU Edwardsville utilized a big second half performance to pull away from the Eastern Illinois women's basketball team and win 75-59.
SIUE shot 63 percent in the second half to improve to 9-13 overall and 5-4 in the OVC while the Panthers fell to 7-14 on the year and 3-6 in the conference.
Erica Brown finished the game recording her third-straight double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
It was a back-and-forth battle throughout the first half as neither team could gain the upper hand. A last second layup from
Brittin Boyer sent EIU into the locker room trailing SIUE 29-28 at halftime. The first half saw five ties and seven lead changes.
The Panthers closed out the first half shooting 53.8 percent from the floor compared to 40 percent from SIUE.
Grace Lennox scored 10 of her 17 points in the first half as the junior recorded her 10th straight game in double figures.
The Cougars came out firing to open the second half going on a 6-0 run to earn a 35-28 lead with 8:24 to go in the third period. Brown eventually halted the SIUE run with four points of her own to make it 35-32 at the 7:08 mark, but the Cougars would pull away thanks to an 11-2 run capped off by a layup from Gwen Adams.
EIU went on to score the final six points of the third period to send the game into the fourth quarter with the Panthers trailing 48-41.
SIUE gained the hot hand in the final period pushing their lead to as high as 17 points following a free throw from Amri Wilder at the 2:06 mark to make it 71-54. The Cougars shot 71 percent from the floor in the fourth quarter out-scoring EIU 27-18 to earn the 75-59 decision. The Panthers finished the second half shooting only 33 percent.
The Cougars had four players finish in double-figures led by Lauren White and Micah Jones with 15 points each. SIUE out-rebounded EIU 38-28 scoring 42 points in the paint compared to 24 points for the Panthers.
Boyer finished the game with eight points along with
Jennifer Nehls while
Danielle Berry set a new career high with six points sinking EIU's only three-pointers of the game.
The Panthers will now head to Tennessee State to take on the Tigers Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.