JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - Eastern Illinois (9-11, 7-8 OVC) fought hard against Jacksonville State (9-6, 6-5 OVC), but came up just short against the Gamecocks: 58-56. All five of the Panthers' starters scored in double figures on the day, but little scoring off the bench hurt EIU in the long run.
Karle Pace made her return for the Panthers today, as she recorded the team-high with 14 points.
Jordyn Hughes,
Kira Arthofer, all scored 11 points, while
Abby Wahl finished with 10 points, and
Lariah Washington finished with 8 to round out the starting five. The Panthers will travel to Cookeville, Tenn., on Saturday to face Tennessee Tech for the second time this season. Â
QUICK STATS
- Grace McRae played in her first game since Dec. 6.
- 6 points in a quarter ties the lowest amount of points scored in a quarter by EIU this season (Northwestern, UT Martin).
- The Panthers lose by two for the second Thursday in a row.
- The Panthers had four players score in double-digits (Pace, Arthofer, Hughes, and Wahl).
- The Panthers put up 36 points in the second half, 16 more than the first half.
- Jordyn Hughes recorded a career-high eight rebounds.
- Karle Pace moves to the No. 13 spot in career points with 1,326Â points: She is 11Â points away from tying Chris Aldridge for the No. 12 spot
QUARTER-BY-QUARTER
The Panthers and Gamecocks started at an even pace early in the game. JSU began to find a rhythm during the middle of the first quarter, shooting 6-14. Pace found Wahl in the waning seconds of the quarter on a roll to the basket. Wahl made a layup through contact and drew a foul in the process. Wahl converted the and-one, tying the Panthers and Gamecocks, 14-14 heading into the second quarter.
Jacksonville State went on a 9-0 run to start the quarter, and pushed the ball in transition at a ferocious pace.
Matt Bollant called a timeout to get the team back on track and, hopefully, stop the score from getting out of hand. Eastern scored their first basket nearly five minutes into the quarter off a Wahl layup. The Panthers started to swing the momentum back in their favor as the Gamecocks shooting began to grow cold. JSU held the lead, 28-20 going into halftime.Â
The Panthers quickly took the momentum away from the Gamecocks early on in the second half of play. EIU scored 8 points to tie the game back up off a pair of Hughes free throws. The Panthers regained the lead from a Washington layup and foul. Washington converted to pull away with a two-point lead. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Imari Martin gave the Gamecocks the lead heading into the final minutes of the quarter. The Panthers kept it close, but a buzzer-beating jumper gave the Gamecocks a 44-42 lead.
EIU and JSU jousted back and forth in the first few minutes of the quarter. Yamia Johnson of the Gamecocks nailed a 3-pointer; Washington quickly responded with a 3 of her own. JSU started to swing the momentum in their favor while EIU's scoring drought exceeded three minutes. Two turnovers turned to layups to cut into the Jacksonville State lead. With two minutes left in the quarter, the Panthers trailed by 5 points, and JSU was losing momentum at the right time for the Panthers. The Jacksonville State defense put the Gamecocks in the driver's seat despite a nearly five-minute scoring drought. Arthofer managed to score a bucket and draw the foul to cut the lead to 5 points. Arthofer was unable to convert, but the Panthers continued to fight in the final seconds. Washington nailed a 3-pointer with two seconds left to go to pull EIU within one, but it was too little too late. The Panthers fell to JSU, 58-56.Â