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Box Score | Photo Gallery by Sandy King

EVANSVILLE, IND. - The Panthers fell in the semi-finals of the OVC Tournament to the UT Martin Skyhawks 63-52. EIU had a tough start to the game and was unable to overcome the deficit that the UT Martin team had built. Abby Wahl and Taylor Steele led the Panthers in points with 12 a piece. The Panthers incredible season comes to an end with a record of 19-12 (12-7 OVC), while UT Martin will move on to the OVC championship game. Eastern proved that they will be an extremely competitive team in seasons to come.

The Panthers competed with the Skyhawks in the early minutes of the game, but fouls plagued EIU at the start. The defense paid off for EIU as they denied Chelsey Perry the ball in the early minutes. Steele hit another three in transition off a great find from Kira Arthofer. UT Martin continued to get to the line, but uncharacteristically struggled. Finishing out the first quarter, the Skyhawks went on a 9-0 run and led at the first quarter buzzer 21-10.

Jordyn Hughes broke the UTM run with a pull up mid-range jumper. UTM went on a cold streak and had five turnovers at the start of the second quarter. Wahl hit a three right in the face of Perry to pull Eastern within eight. Both teams continued to struggle in the second quarter with scoring being sparse. Eastern went nearly five minutes in the quarter without scoring a field goal and only made two the entire quarter. The Panthers abysmal shooting allowed UTM to lead 33-18 at the half.  

The Skyhawks struck first with a Perry jumper, but Arthofer responded with a score in the post. The Panthers started off the third hot with a Karle Pace score and a three-pointer by Steele. Perry started to find her groove though which kept EIU from pulling into close. The offense continued to roll as the momentum in the Ford Center started to swing. EIU had back to back turnovers that allowed UTM to extend their lead. Fouls continued to hinder EIU, as Litwiller had racked up four with 4:38 left in the third quarter. A strong shot by Wahl was met with a Maggie Waldrop jumper that held UTM's lead to 14 points. Steele continued to make big shots for the Panthers as she hit a corner three to pull EIU back into the game. Jennifer Nehls came into the game and hit a cluch three to wake the EIU crowd up. UTM held a nine point lead at the end of the third: 49-40.

The fourth started to get away from EIU. The Panthers found themselves with shots in the paint, but plenty of misses hurt their comeback attempts. Waldrop continued to find her way inside and scored in bunches. The Panthers took a timeout to reestablish the game plan and hopefully find a way to swing the game back in their favor. The Panthers still struggled to score, but got UTM to bite on a couple shots and them into foul trouble. Wahl came out of the media timeout and forced her way into the paint and converted an and-one against Perry. The Panthers were unable to comeback from the deficit and fell in the semi-finals to UT Martin 63-52.