The Eastern women’s basketball team has been special in the past two seasons.

It started out 0-7 at the beginning of last season and stormed back to the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Championship title game.

This season, as the Panthers (19-7, 12-2 OVC) appear to be heading back to the championship game, they have a lot of things going right in their book.

One of the biggest improvements from last season is taking care of the basketball. And while Eastern head coach Brady Sallee has always stressed this, taking care of the basketball has been really imminent.

And while Eastern senior Megan Edwards leads the team in assists, taking care of the basketball has trickled down through the team.

“You just see her handling the pressure,” Sallee said about Edwards. “Everybody just feeds off of that.”

When Galligan was shut down the other night (six points), the Panthers found a way to score. And Eastern’s doing all the right things that have led them seven straight wins.

So these next couple of weeks are going to be really exciting.

Their four regular season games are all OVC games, some of the most important games for the Panthers. Tennessee Martin is on Thursday; a team that always plays them tough. Murray State (the league leaders) has been thorn in Eastern’s side as of late, defeating the Panthers earlier this season and in the conference tournament championship last season. The Panthers will also play the third and fourth place OVC teams in its final weekend and then will need to win the conference tournament.

But Eastern’s offense has been solid, and now that they have picked up a couple wins on the road with an efficient offense – it’s time for the Panthers to solidify for the rest of their season.

“We’re playing to a point that no one player has to make a play,” Sallee said. “Collectively, we can get the play we want to. There’s no real hesitation.”

And when the Panthers host Tennessee Martin at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Lantz Arena,

Eastern boasts the fourth-best home winning streak in the nation and that is playing smart.

“You got a team that understands the game plan,” Sallee said. “They are just interested in winning games. They have been focused on getting to that point. It really is just that simple.”

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