The Eastern women’s basketball team could not get over the nerves of playing in a national postseason game quick enough in Thursday’s loss to Marquette.

The Panthers bowed out in the first round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament to Marquette, which blew away the Panthers 85-56. Eastern head coach Brady Sallee said nerves are a part of the game in a postseason tournament and his team could not overcome them in time to keep the game close.

“You have to deal with it and live on,” Sallee said. “Early on you turn it over a bit and now you’re playing under more pressure.”

The Panthers turned the ball over early and often, ending the game with 30 total turnovers, giving Marquette a huge advantage.

“They showed us some different defenses and their length gave us some problems,” Sallee said. “Balls went off our hands.”

With so many turnovers, Marquette was able to open up a 48-30 halftime lead, leaving a steep hill for the Panthers to climb.

“We were down 18 at halftime but they had a lot of points off turnovers,” senior forward Maggie Kloak said.

Marquette’s length gave Eastern trouble throughout the game as the Golden Eagles proved the Big East reined supreme to the Ohio Valley Conference.

“You can’t turn it over 30 times and have a chance,” Sallee said. “Clearly, they’re in the Big East and we’re not.”

While the Panthers were turning the ball over, they did not get much offensive production from anybody outside of freshman guard Ta’Kenya Nixon, who scored 17 points, and sophomore guard Madeline Kish, who scored 10 points.

The Panthers’ starting forwards registered six points in the game, while committing six personal fouls.

“We are a post-oriented team and we put up a lot of shots down there as a group, every game,” Kloak said. “So we hurt the team by not getting enough shots off.”

Kloak said the main reason she and the rest of Eastern’s forwards were not able to contribute in the paint was because of Marquette’s tough defense.

“They had an aggressive post with a really good trap they put on us,” Kloak said. “Every time we got the ball, they would bring a guard in.”

Kloak only played 20 minutes as she had to sit for long periods with foul trouble, which she said limited her floor effectiveness.

“It’s a credit to their defense because shutting our post down really helped them,” Kloak said.

In the end, Marquette finished with 28 points in the paint, 40 points off turnovers and 28 fast break points.

“They took advantage of our turnovers,” Sallee said. “They push it and score in transition in those situations. We didn’t have much of a chance to defend them because they were coming down the floor with 2-on-1s or 3-on-1s every time.”

With the loss, the Panthers’ season is over. They finished with a record of 23-11 and were the OVC regular season champions.

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

Freshmen guard Ta’Kenya Nixon goes up for a shot against Tennessee State February 27 in Lantz Arena. (Amir Prellberg/The Daily Eastern News)

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