Senior forward Maggie Kloak was the only Eastern player to score in double-figures in the women’s basketball team’s contest against Austin Peay (3-5, 2-0 in the Ohio Valley Conference) Saturday as the Panthers fell 65-55.

Kloak scored just 10 points, while she said that she couldn’t find the basket.

“I had some open looks and received some good passes in the post but I just couldn’t finish,” Kloak said.

The team echoed Kloak’s struggles, as they gave up 63 of the Lady Govs’ points to their starting five.

“They out-hustled us, they worked harder than we did, they killed us on the boards, they out-toughed us, and played way more physical than we did and we let them do that,” Eastern head coach Brady Sallee said.

Eastern (4-4, 1-1 OVC) led the game in points in the paint, points off of turnovers, and bench points; however, got out-rebounded 46-33.

Kloak said that going into the game, the team knew they were going up against two big post players and that they were prepared, but it all changed early in the game.

“They got a couple early rebounds and that kind of lit a fire under them and gave them confidence that they were going to get a bunch,” Kloak said.

Austin Peay senior forward Nicole Jamen pulled down 17 rebounds, while adding 12 points and playing 39 minutes.

“They went hard at the boards and I feel like we could’ve done more to prevent that as a team,” Kloak said. “They kept that fire going and they just got a bunch of boards on us.”

The Panthers never led in the game despite bringing the score to a tie twice. The difference, according to Sallee, was that the team just couldn’t make their lay-ups.

“We executed and got the ball down close to the basket but we couldn’t make our lay-ups,” Sallee said.

Aside from Kloak, sophomore forward Chantelle Pressley and freshman guard Ta’Kenya Nixon were the team’s second leading scorers, both putting up nine points.

The team’s offense never really got going as they only shot 33.9 percent from the field and 16.5 percent from beyond the arc.

“We just didn’t start running it well in the beginning of the game and that started a downward spiral,” Kloak said. “We weren’t passing the ball well and we weren’t doing things that we usually do well.”

The Panthers and Lady Govs featured two different attacks, as every Panther who saw action scored, while the Lady Govs’ starting five played an average of nearly 34 minutes of the total 40 minutes in the game.

Only one Panther scored in double figures, while three Lady Govs notched double digits – Jamen had a double-double, and junior guard Brooke Faulkner reached 20 points.

“When you play on your heels against a team that’s aggressive, that’s what it looks like,” Sallee said. “I don’t think we were led very well. We were anything but a team tonight. We got out toughed and they handled us.”

Eastern returns home to begin a two-game homestand Wednesday as they play Western Michigan (3-4) at 5:30 p.m. in Lantz Arena.

Alex McNamee can be reached at 581-7944 or admcnamee@eiu.edu.