COOKEVILLE, TENN. -- Eastern Illinois women's basketball withstood their first road test of the Ohio Valley Conference season in a major way, defeating the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles 67-62 in Cookeville, Tennessee on Thursday evening. With the win, which marks EIU's first over TTU since February 4, 2017 and their first road win against the Golden Eagles since February 13, 2012.
"We had to earn it today,"Â said head coach
Matt Bollant. "We knew they were going to be confident, and they haven't lost at home all year, and (we) felt like we had to come in and take it, and we did that."
The Panthers took it to TTU early on, taking an 8-2 lead highlighted by a converted and-one from
Miah Monahan. After a TTU bucket cut it to 8-4,
Lariah Washington responded with an and-one of her own to up the lead to 11-4. The teams exchanged buckets the rest of the way in the first quarter, with
Taris Thornton hitting a layup off a find from
Ellie Colson to give EIU a 19-13 lead going into the second period. After a 6-2 Golden Eagle spurt cut the Panther lead to two,
Morgan Litwiller hit a three-pointer to increase the lead back to five at 24-19. With the Panthers up 28-23 with just under three minutes left in the half, TTU's Reagan Hurst hit a three to cut it to 28-26 and sank one free throw in the waning seconds to make it 28-27 at halftime.
Washington scored the first points of the second half to up the lead back to three, but the Golden Eagles then took their first lead of the ballgame with back-to-back buckets. A Litwiller layup to retake the lead was immediately answered by a Golden Eagle three-pointer. After two
Macy McGlone free throws gave EIU the lead back at 38-37, a 9-2 TTU run put the Panthers in a 46-40 hole with 2:32 remaining in the third quarter. Not giving up, the Panthers used a Litwiller three-pointer and a
Julia Bengtson layup off of a full-court pass from Monahan to go on a 5-2 spurt going into the fourth quarter.
Down 51-49 with 7:07 remaining, Monahan hit a pull-up jumper to tie it at 51. After another bucket by Hurst put TTU back up two, Monahan came up with a clutch offensive rebound off of a missed
Taris Thornton free throw and Washington subsequently hit a jumper in the lane to tie it up at 53. After a defensive stop, Thornton was fouled in the lane and managed to get the ball to roll into the hoop after it momentarily hung on the rim. Thornton hit the following free throw to give EIU a 56-53 lead with 5:13 remaining. Up 58-55 with just under four minutes remaining, Monahan hit another pull-up jumper and answered a TTU three-pointer with a triple of her own to give the Panthers a 63-58 lead with 2:18 to go. After another TTU bucket, it was Washington's turn to rise to the occasion, and she answered the bell in the form of a jump shot to give EIU a 65-60 lead. Hurst hit another bucket to cut it to three with 37 seconds to go, and after EIU's subsequent possession failed to produce any points, the Golden Eagles had one final chance to tie things up again, but Maaliya Owens' last gasp three-pointer was rejected by Litwiller and Washington sank two free throws to give EIU the five-point victory.
Washington led the Panthers offensively once again, scoring 21 points on 9-of-18 shooting for her seventh 20+ point effort of the season and dishing out seven assists. She now moves into eighth place all-time on EIU's all-time scorers list. Litwiller went a perfect 3-for-3 from three-point range and scored 15 points to go along with four rebounds. Monahan scored 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting and grabbed six rebounds.
"Big players stepping up and making plays."Â said coach Bollant of the trio's performance.
McGlone contributed with eight points, five rebounds, and two blocks, and
Taris Thornton scored five points. As a team, the Panthers recorded 17 assists on 27 made shots.
Up next, the Panthers will head to Morehead, Ky. for another road battle, this time against the Morehead State Eagles. Tipoff is scheduled for 12 PM CT.