Women’s BBall receives new road warm ups
Eastern sophomore forward Maggie Kloak and the rest of the team are enjoying their new silver jumpsuits.
The team wears the silver warm ups for road games.
“It’s a joke that we look like big (astronauts),” junior forwardEllen Canale said. “Putting that big flag on the moon for the first time. Yeah, we’re looking pretty snazzy.”
But the Panthers won’t get to wear their snazzy new warm ups very often the rest of the season.
The Panthers are playing a program record number of games at home (15). The Panthers have won three straight road games this season, all in the Ohio Valley Conference.
Carpenter gets in game
Eastern freshman guard Jerika Carpenter saw her first collegiate action of her career on Monday night.
Carpenter came into the game at Austin Peay and scored on her only attempt.
Sallee said he was impressed by her and the fact she kept working all season.
“She kept her head on,” Sallee said. “In crunch time, she answered.”
Three players on top in the OVC
Red-shirt sophomore guard Megan Edwards is a good ball handler.
Edwards is the starting point guard for the Panthers and is second in the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.18).
In the weekend series against Murray State and Southeast Missouri, Edwards had 11 assists compared to just one turnover.
“She played the same way (her freshman) year,” Canale said. “She’s that type of point guard. She looks to pass first. She is the point guard that you want to play with. She’s a completely different player than (sophomore point guard Jessica Huffman). And they both had great advantages.”
Edwards also is fourth in the conference in free throw percentage and sixth in the conference in minutes played.
Canale is also warming up in conference play from beyond the arc. She is the conference leader at 57 percent from three-point range. In conference play, Canale is 12-of-16 from three-point range and is 16-of-28 this season.
Sophomore guard Dominique Sims is second in the conference in field goal percentage.
Limiting the post player
The Panthers have limited opposing post players in recent games.
Eastern limited Indiana State’s Laura Rudolphi to 10 points and four rebounds. The Panthers then held Loyola of Chicago’s Brittany Boeke to two points, three rebounds and five fouls. Tennessee Tech’s Kristina Tyler had 17 points and nine rebounds, but she also fouled out near the end of regulation against the Panthers.
Eastern Kentucky’s starting post players combined for 17 points and eight rebounds, but both starting players played with nine fouls. Murray State center Angela Brown finished with 10 rebounds and seven rebounds, but also had four fouls. Southeast Missouri’s Missy Whitney sat out more than 15 minutes in the first half on Saturday because of foul trouble. The preseason league player of the year finished with 12 points and seven rebounds.
Panthers succeed in class too
The team is working hard in the classroom to compliment its league-leading play on the court.
The team had the second best average among Eastern’s 11 female sports with a 3.34 GPA.
Last season the women’s basketball team finished 10th in the country with 3.4442 GPA among other Division I basketball teams. That ranked them first in the OVC and had higher GPAs than teams such as DePaul, Southern Illinois, Marist and Villanova.
Kevin Murphy may be reached at 581-7944 or at kjmurphy@eiu.edu.
