Tennessee Tech coach Amy Brown recognizes it. Morehead State coach Mike Bradbury recognizes it.

Both Brown and Bradbury recognize how deep the Eastern women’s basketball team can be.

And that team has an offense that has propelled the Panthers to four consecutive wins and 11 wins in their last 13 games.

The offensive production has mainly been from junior forward Rachel Galligan. The Bloomington native averages 18.6 points and 5.9 rebounds. Bradbury said before the game Galligan could be the conference player of the year. Galligan, though, was not the leading scorer on Saturday night at Lantz Arena when Eastern defeated Morehead State 68-52.

It was sophomore guard Dominique Sims.

“Sims killed us,” Bradbury said. “The problem with us trying to guard them is they’ve got five or six kids that can score. With our athleticism – or lack thereof – we can’t guard everybody. So we have to pick and choose whom we guard. We chose wrong tonight.”

Sims stuffed the stats with 15 points, six rebounds, three assists and two turnovers.

Sims plays the guard on the offense and the post on defense.

Junior guard Ellen Canale, who is typically a defensive guard, has increased her scoring as well. She finished with nine points against the Eagles and scores 7.9 points per game.

Red-shirt sophomore guard Megan Edwards can score too. Her season high of 17 points came against Tennessee-Martin. She averages 7.4 points.

The bench is solid too.

There’s sophomore guard Jessica Huffman who can put up points. Huffman, the 2007 Ohio Valley Conference Freshman of the Year, missed four games this season because of the stress fracture. She started at point guard last season and was a preseason conference selection this season. Huffman gives the Panthers’ a scoring punch off the bench scoring 8.6 ppg.

Also sophomore forward Maggie Kloak is big when Galligan needs a breather.

But when Galligan missed five games in November because of a toe injury, Kloak was huge.

Kloak scored 12.4 ppg in Galligans’ absense and she averages 7.0 points on the season.

Kloak didn’t perform that well in the first half against Morehead State on the road on Dec. 19.

She only scored five points in the first 20 minutes.

But then Kloak made a second-half adjustment.

She finished with 22 points and eight rebounds helping Eastern to a 66-55 victory against Morehead State in Morehead, Ky.

Kloak’s 22 points at Morehead State was a career high. Her previous high was 16 points against Tennessee Tech earlier this season on Dec. 6.

Even sophomore guard Ashley Thomas can give them a spark off the bench with 5.1 ppg.

The Panthers average 69.5 points in Ohio Valley Conference games, while league opponents average 62.4 points. The team’s conference scoring is higher than last season and the opponent’s scoring is down as well. This equates to winning more games.

And all of this will be key if the Panthers want to dream big.

They currently sit at 11-9 and 10-2 in the OVC.

The starters and bench can carry them to them to the OVC Tournament and possibly the NCAA Tournament if they continue to play on the same, high level.

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