The Eastern women’s basketball team closed the first half on a 23-4 run and led by as many as 39 points as they rolled to a 83-45 win against Tennessee State in the Ohio Valley Conference opener Thursday night at Lantz Arena.

The Panthers jumped out to an early 25-13 lead and proceeded to go on a 16-0 run to put the game away in the first half. They led by 24 at halftime.

Senior guard Ellen Canale paced the Panthers with 16 points to go with seven rebounds. Canale also helped hold the Lady Tigers’ leading scorer, senior guard Kendra Appling, in check for most of the night. Appling, who scored 16.3 points per game last season, finished with only seven points on 2-of-11 shooting and had five turnovers.

“We knew the kind of player she is from playing against her the past three years,” Canale said. “(Head coach Brady Sallee) kept saying she will take the shot so we just had to make sure to give a full team effort and everyone was there on help every single time.”

Sallee said the Panthers knew the kind of game Appling plays going into the game and the entire team contributed in stopping her.

“Our whole team stepped (against Appling),” Sallee said. “We took a couple of charges against her, and she just didn’t have anywhere to go with the way we were playing.”

Red-shirt junior guard Dominique Sims was among the Panthers responsible for guarding Appling and said that Eastern’s size was a big factor in containing her so well.

“Because she’s very quick off the dribble we were able to play off of her a bit and just put a hand in her face,” said Sims, who finished with nine points and four assists. “We were also able to cut her off because we had a size advantage. That helped out a lot.”

Appling, at just 5-foot-5, is two inches shorter than the shortest Eastern player.

Sallee said that the team focused on getting the ball inside with the Lady Tigers missing 5-foot-9 senior forward Obiageli Okafor, who was a Second Team All-OVC selection a year ago.

Okafor is out for the season with a ruptured Achilles tendon in her left foot.

“Our game plan going in was to get the ball in the teeth of their defense,” Sallee said. “We felt like that was where our strength was going to be and where their weakness was going to be, especially with Okafor out. We took advantage of that and did a good job of executing there.”

Senior forward Rachel Galligan, who finished with 15 points and a game-high eight rebounds, said the Panthers relied on the advantage that they had in their post game.

“We knew we had more depth in the post and we definitely had a height advantage,” Galligan said. “Them having not as much depth we played inside-out like we do every game.

Eastern won the rebounding battle by a wide margin.

The Panthers out-rebounded the Lady Tigers 53-29. It was the first time since the 2007-08 OVC opener that the Panthers breached the 50-rebound mark.

Eleven of the 13 Eastern plays who saw action scored.

Junior guard Ashley Thomas finished with 10 points and seven rebounds off the bench.

Freshman forward Chantelle Pressley and senior guard Megan Edwards had six points apiece.

Edwards also had five assists to lead the team.

The Panthers play the second game of their four-game homestand Saturday when they take on OVC foe Austin Peay.

Tipoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. at Lantz Arena.

Collin Whitchurch can be reached at 581-7944 or at cfwhitchurch@eiu.edu.

Junior guard Ashley Thomas blocks Tennessee State’s Kendra Appling during the second half of Thursday evening’s Ohio Valley Conference opener at Lantz Arena. The Panthers won 83-45. (Eric Hiltner/The Daily Eastern News)

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