Rachel Galligan was oh so close.

The Eastern junior forward missed her only free throw shot of the game with three seconds remaining in the game, but her play all day long helped the Panthers pull through for a 69-56 victory against Tennessee State in Nashville, Tenn. on Saturday afternoon.

The Bloomington native finished 12-of-13 from the free throw line and 9-of-12 from the floor. Galligan finished with 30 points, her second game of the season where she finished with 30 or more points.

“Rachel was an absolute warrior tonight,” Eastern head coach Brady Sallee said. “She has such a size advantage. She’s going up strong.”

Galligan, a 6-foot-2 post, was taller than all of the TSU starters.

Galligan had 31 points (a career high) against Eastern Kentucky on Jan. 12.

In the game against EKU, Galligan finished 15-of-18 from the line. If Galligan would have not missed her free throw, she would have tied an Eastern record for free throw percentage in a game.

Galligan got the ball rolling for the Panthers (10-9, 9-2 Ohio Valley Conference) early in the first half.

She started out 5-of-5 from the field and was the only Panther to score from the field until red-shirt sophomore guard Megan Edwards hit a 3-pointer with 9 minutes, 34 seconds remaining in the first half.

Sallee said Edwards and the rest of the team are really understanding the high-low offense and feeding it into the post.

“That’s our offense; we play inside,” Sallee said. “We took advantage of (Tennessee State’s lack of size.)”

Edwards’ back-to-back 3-pointers in the first half tied the game at 21. Her 3-pointers came from the offense that understood when Galligan is double-teamed she has to kick it back outside. Edwards finished with 10 points.

Eastern took a 35-25 lead into halftime.

The Panthers used their free throw game to pull away from the Lady Tigers (7-11, 4-5) at the end of the second half. Despite some defensive pressure toward the end of the second half, the Panthers finished on a 13-6 run. Eastern’s last field goal of the game came from sophomore guard Dominique Sims with 4:19 remaining as she extended Eastern’s 58-50 lead. The Panthers finished the game from the free throw line making 11-of-12 in the final four minutes. The Panthers finished 28-of-31 from the free throw line.

“We had to go in there at the right moments,” Edwards said about the Panthers attempts to drive toward the basket.

Edwards said they didn’t always draw the foul, and it was tough to draw the foul against an athletic TSU team.

The Panthers are second in the conference in free throw percentage (79 percent) and 12th in the nation.

Eastern junior forward Lindsey Kluempers added eight points and seven rebounds. Sims finished with six points and five points.

TSU junior forward Obiageli Okafor had 17 points to lead the Lady Tigers, and junior guard Kendra Appling added 12 points.

Kevin Murphy can be reached at 581-7944 or at kjmurphy@eiu.edu.

Junior forward Rachel Galligan grabs the rebound during the women’s heartbreaking loss to Tennessee-Martin on January 10th at Lantz Arena. (Eric Hiltner/The Daily Eastern News)

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