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CHARLESTON, ILL -- Eastern Illinois women's basketball suffered a 66-61 loss to the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles on Saturday afternoon at Lantz Arena.  With the result, the Panthers finish the regular season at 21-7 overall and 14-4 in Ohio Valley Conference play.

"We got up four, we got up five, and then we just didn't guard."  said head coach Matt Bollant.  "We just didn't guard down the stretch the way we needed to."

It was the Macy McGlone show early on for the Panthers, as the sophomore forward scored the first eight points of the game for EIU.  Down 13-8 late in the first quarter, Lyric Johnson got into the scoring column with a steal-and-score, which was followed by a TTU layup that made it 15-10 at the end of the quarter.  Lariah Washington got on the board first in the second quarter with a jumpshot.  After a TTU three-pointer, a 7-0 Panther run that was highlighted by a Johnson three-pointer gave EIU a 19-18 lead.  The Golden Eagles answered with a 9-0 run to make it 27-18 before five straight Panther free throws made it 27-24.  After a TTU bucket, Miah Monahan sank a three-pointer to pull EIU to within 29-27 at halftime.

Tech fired the first shot of the second half as a three-pointer put them up 32-27.  Down 34-29, McGlone converted on an and-one opportunity to spark a 10-1 run that gave EIU a 39-35 lead.  After a TTU three-pointer cut it to one, Washington responded with a three of her own and followed up with a jumper that made it 44-38 with 4:02 remaining in the third quarter.  It then became a game of runs, as Tennessee Tech ended the quarter on an 8-0 run which they then extended to a 12-0 run, taking a 50-44 lead early in the final period of play.  EIU answered with a 13-2 run that gave them a 57-52 lead with just under five minutes to play, but two missed Washington free throws were followed by an 8-2 Golden Eagle run that gave TTU a 60-59 lead with 1:32 left to play.  The Panthers took the lead back on two good free throws from McGlone, but TTU made what was ultimately the game-deciding basket at the other end with 39 seconds to play and after a McGlone layup attempt to retake the lead was blocked, the Golden Eagles hit two free throws to make it 64-61.  After Monahan's attempt at the equalizer hit the side of the backboard, TTU sank two more game-clinching free throws.

McGlone led the Panthers with 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting and six rebounds.  Monahan scored nine points and dished out seven assists while Taris Thornton and Johnson each had seven points.

In their final regular season games at Lantz Arena, Washington had 13 points, four rebounds, and four assists and Morgan Litwiller had seven points and five rebounds.

"It's a bittersweet feeling,"  said Washington.  "Obviously, we wanted to come out with a win, but it's just nice to have the fans here, and the community, and family.  Just a cool experience."

"Not the way we wanted to go out, but such a cool experience."  Litwiller added.  "I will never forget it, having that many people in there, who were there to see us and honor us in our last game there.  It was just really special."

EIU accumulated 15 assists on 21 made shots.

The Panthers now turn their attention to the OVC Tournament, which will begin in Evansville on Wednesday, March 1.  SIUE, the number six seed, will face Tennessee State, the number seven seed, on that day at approximately 3:30 PM with the winner facing Tennessee Tech, the number three seed, at approximately 3:30 PM on Thursday, March 2.  EIU, the number two seed, will play the winner of that contest on Friday, March 3 at approximately 3:30 PM.

"I'm excited to show these other teams what they haven't seen yet."  said Litwiller.  "We have so much potential and so much we can work on in this next week.  I think we have a lot of growth yet to come, and so I feel like we're gonna go into this tournament and we're gonna give everything we have and we're gonna show these teams that we have a lot more to us that you haven't seen yet."