Tennessee Tech’s Hooper Eblen Center has not been friendly to Eastern. The Golden Eagles hold an 11-0 all-time record against the Panthers on their home court in Cookeville, Tenn.

The Eblen Center is also the site where Tech ended Eastern’s season with an 83-69 win last year in the first round of the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

But there has never been a better time for Eastern to break the streak and get revenge for its early tournament exit.

Tech’s long-time coach Bill Worrell retired before the season with 408 career wins. His top assistant, Amy Brown, has taken over a team that graduated last year’s Ohio Valley Conference player of the year, Emily Christian, and Tech (1-5) has been hard-pressed for wins thus far.

“We’re struggling a little bit,” Brown said. “We’re trying to find our identity after losing Emily and the other seniors.”

The OVC’s leading scorer, sophomore forward Rachel Galligan, and the Panthers’ offense, ranked fifth in the nation and averaging 85 points per game, will meet tonight at 5:30 against a Golden Eagles squad that is the worst in the conference in field goal percentage defense and rebounding.

While tonight’s game will be the conference opener for Eastern, the Golden Eagles opened up their conference season last Saturday with a 66-57 road loss to Austin Peay. Tech has lost five straight after winning its season opener against Lambuth University.

Despite the apparent advantages, this is Eastern’s first conference road game this season and head coach Brady Sallee will look to his seasoned sophomores to guide his young team.

“They went in last year blind and they didn’t have any idea how hard it is to win a game on the road,” Sallee said about his six sophomores. “But now they know how to grind it out on the road, grind it out in the conference.”

One of those sophomores, Ellen Canale, returned to the starting line-up in the two games at the State Farm Tiger Classic in Columbia, Mo. Canale scored 14 points and pulled down nine rebounds combined against Alabama A&M and Creighton.

Her return to the line-up has Sallee using a four guard offense that is quick and athletic but it gives up a lot of size to Tennessee Tech’s two 5-foot-10 guards. Tech senior, Deanna Apple, is one of the tallest point guards in the conference and will have a 2 to 3 inch height advantage over any Eastern guard defending her.

“Her height helps her see over other players and make better passes,” Brown said. “But the disadvantage of being so tall is getting down, getting low to defend smaller guards.”

Eastern’s own point guard, freshman Jessica Huffman, struggled with her passing earlier in the year but improved last weekend in Missouri.

“It was never something she didn’t understand,” Sallee said about Huffman’s turnover issues. “She slowed herself down a little bit and let the system do what it needed to do and got her points within it. I really like how many touches (Galligan) got and she set (Eck) up for a couple good outside shots.”

Huffman, who had 40 turnovers to just 25 assists before the State Farm Tiger Classic, recorded 10 assists to only seven turnovers at the tournament.