It doesn’t matter to Eastern junior forward Lindsey Kluempers if she goes unnoticed on the scouting report.

She’s probably one of the last players opposing coaches look at when they glance at the Panthers. Junior forward Rachel Galligan averages 18.9 points and 5.8 rebounds. Red-shirt sophomore guard Megan Edwards is second in the Ohio Valley Conference in the assist-to-turnover-ratio.

Sophomore guard Dominique Sims averages 9.8 points and 5.1 rebounds. Then there’s either junior guard Ellen Canale or sophomore guard Jessica Huffman. Canale averages 7.9 points and 3.7 rebounds and Huffman averages 8.5 points.

Kluempers is sitting quietly in the starting lineup. She averages 5.1 points and 4.1 rebounds.

The Fishers, Ind., native is the only Panther to start all 19 games this season. She’s remained healthy when others on the squad did not. While the majority of the focus is on Galligan, a 2007 First Team All-OVC selection and one of the best post players in the conference, Kluempers is quietly doing her thing.

As a shooting forward, she’s hitting the open shots. She’s making diagonal passes or lobs to Galligan inside. When Galligan is inside the paint and double-teamed, Kluempers is there to get the ball back and bring it back to the guards who can set the offense again.

Kluempers was key this past week.

She finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds on the road against Tennessee Tech and Tennessee State.

Kluempers is boxing out, setting screens, getting open, hitting open shots and knocking down the shots from the free throw line.

Those are all the necessary things a player needs to do in order to win basketball games.

“She’s one of those kids,” Eastern head coach Brady Sallee said. “She plays the same way every night.”

While Kluempers might not be the perfect mold of a true post player, she’s dynamic in filling the role of a shooter and defending as a post player.

Kluempers has shown her strengths on the road.

Kluempers finished with a career-high 15 points and five rebounds against Morehead State in Morehead, Ky., on Dec. 19. She had 10 points and seven rebounds at Eastern Kentucky.

I guess the ideal situation is to send Kluempers to play on the road this season.

In conference road games, she averages 10 points and 5.4 rebounds if five games. The Panthers are 5-0 on the road this season in conference.

Continued road success will be essential for the Panthers in the second half of the season.

The Panthers make a trip to Alabama and play Jacksonville State on Jan. 31 and Samford on Feb. 2.

The Panthers visit Tennessee-Martin on Feb. 9. And then the Panthers play the biggest road trip of the season when they play at current second-place SEMO on Feb. 14 and current third-place Murray State on Feb. 16.

Galligan has dominated since her return from a toe injury in December. But Kluempers’ play on the road might be the determining factor to Eastern’s success.

You can reach Kevin Murphy at 581-7944 or at kjmurphy@eiu.edu.