With seven seconds to go Saturday, Eastern trailed Indiana State by two and the Sycamores had their best free throw shooter, senior guard Kelsey Luna, at the line, trying to make it a three-point game.

Freshman guard Ta’Kenya Nixon was expecting Luna, a 95 percent free throw shooter, to make the shot so the upcoming play was going through her head, as she was thinking about a way to get an open three-point shot for one of her teammates.

Nixon’s plans took a drastic turn, as Luna missed the shot, and immediately Nixon got the ball into her hands and began to act on instinct.

“I was just focused on getting toward the rim because I knew there wasn’t much time left, so, I wanted to get as good of a shot as I could,” Nixon said.

Nixon drove down the court and pulled up. The ball bounced around the rim, but didn’t fall in – the game was over and Indiana State won 65-63.

“We didn’t have any timeouts and she missed the free throw, and Ta’Kenya did exactly what I needed her to do,” Eastern head coach Brady Sallee said. “I’d take that shot 100 percent of the time, but it didn’t go in for us this time.”

Nixon’s final effort was too little too late as the Panthers tried to dig themselves out of a late game hole. They were trailing by eight with 2:22 to go in the game.

“We went through a stretch where we took some questionable shots and I thought we played selfishly there for a while,” Sallee said. “We battled to get back in, but it was too little too late.”

Senior forward Maggie Kloak was a big part of the Panthers scoring efforts in the game, as she came up with a season-high 19 points, which Sallee said was important.

“She put the ball in the bucket and really played well,” Sallee said. “Hopefully, this is a little bit of a coming out party for her and she can keep the ball rolling.”

Kloak said she owes all the credit to her guards, who provided her with some great passes into the paint, and who were able to draw the double-team off of her.

“When our guards are threats on the perimeter, it’s hard for them to stay off of them and get onto me,” Kloak said. “When we started hitting shots from the perimeter, that took the double team off of me and I got some looks.”

While Eastern got a big game from Kloak, it didn’t get anything out of senior guard Dominique Sims, which Sallee said really hurt.

“It’s going to be hard to win when we get nothing out of her,” Sallee said. “That was a disappointment, there’s no question.”

Sallee said he thought the offense and defense both played really well, but Indiana State’s freshman guard Taylor Whitley may have been the difference in the game, with her team-high 14 points.

Eastern drops to a record of 5-5, 1-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference. Its next game is Sunday against University of Illinois-Chicago in Chicago.

The start time is scheduled for 3 p.m. in Chicago.

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

Freshman guard Ta’Kenya Nixon drives the ball down the court during the game against Indiana State Saturday afternoon at Lantz Arena.(Audrey Sawyer/The Daily Eastern News)

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