The loss to Illinois-Chicago on Nov. 19 at Lantz Arena was a clear case of experience beating inexperience.

At least that’s what head coach Brady Sallee said.

“We just had a bunch of freshmen and sophomores playing against a bunch of seniors,” he said. “We gotta learn from this. One day that’s going to be us.”

The Flames beat the Panthers 81-80 in overtime after Eastern fought back from a 7-point deficit in overtime.

“We dug ourselves a hole,” said senior guard Meggie Eck. “It’s tough to win overtime; it’s only 5 minutes.”

The Panther came back and took the lead in overtime on a layup by Huffman with 20 seconds left.

But a jumper from the baseline by UIC’s Kelly True gave UIC the win.

The tight game reminded Sallee of last season’s 80-78 overtime loss to Butler.

In that game, Megan Edwards had a shot blocked at the end of the game. The close game was the first time the freshman class had a chance to win. This season, the UIC game was the first game that was close throughout.

“We’ve got a bunch of babies out there learning under fire,” Sallee said. “Unfortunately, (they were) playing against a senior-led basketball team.”

High-scoring, quick offense leads to mistakes

The Panthers’ running style of offense could be pretty exciting this year.

Of course, it’ll cost them on the defensive stat sheets.

Eastern leads the league with an average of 94 points per game but is second-to-last in scoring defense, giving up an average of 83.5 points.

The 94 points is more than 10 points per game more than the second place team, Eastern Kentucky.

With the speed of the offense and the youth on the court, Sallee said turnovers are going to be a part of the game.

“When you’re playing at that speed, I think you are going to turn the ball over,” he said. “We accept that as long as they’re good ones. We’re just going to have to continue learning how to play at this speed.”

The Panthers are third in the OVC with 21.8 turnovers per game.

Panthers continue to garner weekly awards

The Panthers look like they’ll be battling for Ohio Valley Conference freshman of the week awards quite a bit this season, much like last season when Edwards won the award three times and center Rachel Galligan won it twice.

Freshman point guard Jessica Huffman won the award last week after averaging 20 points in her first three games.

In her debut against Bradley, Huffman scored 23 points and helped the Panthers beat the Braves 92-75.

Canale returns to lineup at Indiana State

Eastern’s backcourt continues to get healthier.

Ellen Canale, who missed the first three games of the season with mononucleosis, returned for the Panthers game against Indiana State on Nov. 21.

She played 9 minutes and scored two points as Sallee tries to work her minutes up.

“She doesn’t have her game legs under her,” he said. “She did some good things.”

Sophomore Kara Kramer, who has a stress fracture in her left foot, has been getting tested every week but has not seen much improvement, Sallee said.

“She’s still day-to-day,” he said. “There is no news on it. I’d like to think it’s getting better.”

Edwards is out for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee.