Head coach Brady Sallee hates them. Freshman point guard Jessica Huffman has struggled with them. Reserve point guard Lauren Sturtevant hopes they get her more playing time.

They are turnovers and they are keeping the Panthers’ record from reflecting their talent level.

Mistakes are expected to occur with such a young team, but with Sallee’s team, they are hurting them more than normal. They are holding the team back.

Eastern has shot the ball well and played good defense for most of the season, more than their 7-13 record shows.

Eastern has the No. 1 offense in the Ohio Valley Conference, averaging 75.8 points per game and the team is second in the conference in field goal percentage and third in 3-point percentage.

But normally a team who shoots well and has the third most steals and blocked shots in the OVC should not be ninth in that conference.

So what gives?

The Panthers lead the league with 417 turnovers, 20.9 per game this season.

Huffman’s inexperience in college basketball, combined with her aggressive style, has led to 117 of those, hardly the total amount.

The Panthers have struggled to break opponents’ full-court presses at times. On Jan. 6, after Eastern’s 74-62 loss to Austin Peay, Sallee said the Governors were running a press “a local eighth-grade team runs.” But in the loss, Eastern turned the ball over 23 times.

In Eastern’s two straight wins, it turned the ball over 48 times, but a clutch shot by senior Meggie Eck and Tennessee Tech’s total inability to put the ball in the basket overcame the sloppy ball handling.

But Eastern can’t win on last second shots every game. Eastern can’t play OVC bottom-feeder TTU every game.

Eastern has the talent to stretch this two-game winning streak into a push to the OVC tournament, but the Panthers have to limit mistakes.

Freshman Ashley Thomas, while reluctant to play the position, performed extremely well as point guard in Eastern’s 30-point blowout against Tennessee State and could be given a chance to play more at the position.

Huffman is far too valuable as a scorer, and the five-time OVC freshman of the week needs to be on the floor as much as possible. Her ability to dive the lane and make difficult, highly contested lay-ups is unmatched in the conference. She is extremely athletic and is quick on the floor, but the turnovers cannot be ignored.

Sallee’s team is young and good ball-handling skills cannot be taught overnight. But they could to a team who would instantly be a contender in the conference and make some noise in the postseason tournament.

It’s not an easy task but it can be easily said: control the ball to control their destiny.