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CHARLESTON, ILL -- Eastern Illinois women's basketball jumped ahead early and never looked back en route to a 73-50 home win over the UT Martin Skyhawks on Thursday evening at Lantz Arena.  With the win, the Panthers have swept UT Martin for the first time since the 2008-09 season and hit the 20-win mark for the 10th time in program history and the first time since 2012-13.  The Panthers also set a new program record with 13 consecutive in-season OVC wins and extended their overall OVC win streak to 16.

"Really proud of our team the way we defended and played,"  said head coach Matt Bollant.  "It was great to have the crowd into it and I thought our kids really responded quite well."

The Panthers started fast, hitting five of their first seven shots from the field en route to an early 11-2 lead.  The Skyhawks responded with a 7-2 run, but would not hit another shot in the first quarter as EIU ended the 1st quarter with a 23-10 lead.  The 10-1 run would be extended to begin the second quarter as the Panthers scored the first five of the period to take a 28-10 lead.  The tide began to change in the second quarter as a six-point Skyhawks possession sparked a 12-1 UT Martin run to make it 29-22.  After weathering the storm, the Panthers managed to trade blows en route to a 37-29 halftime lead.

As they have done so often this season, the Panthers would take over in the second half, as a Miah Monahan three-pointer sparked a 14-2 run to give the Panthers their biggest lead of the game at 51-31.  After Monahan answered a three by UTM's Paige Pipkin with a converted and-one opportunity, the Panthers widened the gap once more, as back-to-back layups from Julia Bengtson were followed by a Lariah Washington steal-and-score to widen the gap to 60-34.  After a pair of UTM free throws, a layup by Lyric Johnson made it 62-36 going into the fourth quarter.  Playing mostly reserves in the final period, the Panther lead would balloon to as much as 30, at 73-43.  UTM finished the game on a 7-0 run to make the final margin 23.

Monahan led all scorers with 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting and had seven assists.  Washington had 13 points and six rebounds while Johnson scored a career-high 12 points and also collected six rebounds.  Coming off the bench, Taris Thornton had 11 points and six rebounds while Bengtson had six points and four rebounds.  Ellie Colson provided some solid minutes off the bench in the second and third quarter, scoring four points and setting a new career high with six rebounds.  Emily Meidel also scored four off the bench on a perfect 2-of-2 shooting.

The Panthers doubled up the Skyhawks in the paint 40-20 and scored 22 points off of 21 UTM turnovers.

"This is a great group right now that we have,"  said Washington.  "We just love to play with each other and we have confidence in one another."

"I think also, we spend a lot of time together outside of basketball,"  Monahan added.  "I think that's a big part of it and it shows on the court."

The Panthers begin a three-game road stretch on Saturday, February 11 at SIUE.  Tipoff is scheduled for 1 PM CT.