Eastern knows it can’t shut down Tennessee Tech senior center Emily Christian.

But the Panthers know they must stop Christian’s four teammates if they want to be successful in the opening round of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament in Cookeville, Tenn.

“Trying to completely shut her down is next to impossible,” Eastern head coach Brady Sallee said. “The idea would be to keep her around 20 (points) and try to do a job on the rest of them.”

For the third time this season, the Panthers (10-18, 9-11 OVC) will look to freshman center Rachel Galligan to try and contain Christian.

It has been a tough time – not only for Galligan – but also for the rest of the OVC to contain Christian.

In the first meeting between the Panthers and Golden Eaglettes (20-7, 16-4), Christian had 19 points and 13 rebounds in Tennessee Tech’s 62-54 victory at Lantz Arena.

In the second meeting in Cookeville, Christian was even better. She had 25 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists in Tech’s 78-67 victory.

“She’s one of the best players in the league,” Galligan said. “This will be my third time trying to defend her and it won’t be any easier than the first two.”

While Eastern strictly runs a man-to-man defense, the Golden Eaglettes use a variety of looks on the defensive end. Tech runs everything from man-to-man to different zone defenses.

“They play quite a few different defenses,” Sallee said. “You have to recognize what they’re doing and attack the rim.”

Sallee maintains the Panthers must speed up the tempo of the game and try to force Tech into turnovers.

The Golden Eaglettes and Panthers differ in styles. Tech prefers to play a slow down half-court offense, while Eastern likes to push the tempo of the game and force its opponents into turnovers.

“We’d like to make it a high-scoring game,” Sallee said. “I think the more higher scoring the game is, the more it will benefit us.”

The Panthers remain firm in their beliefs that it’s difficult to beat a team three times in one year.

“We know it’s tough to beat a team three times in one year,” senior guard Megan Sparks said. “No time is better for the first win than now.”

Another key for the Panthers is foul trouble on both ends of the floor. While Galligan has been known to get in foul trouble, she knows that her importance of staying will be especially vital against Christian.

“That’s one of our goals is for me to stay out of foul trouble and get her into foul trouble,” Galligan said.