NASHVILLE – Not today, not tomorrow, but “someday.”

“We’ll be on top of that ladder someday,” Eastern head coach Brady Sallee said.

After Thursday’s quarterfinal loss to Austin Peay, Eastern head coach Brady Sallee was left to try and make something positive out of a negative end to the team’s season.

Austin Peay beat Eastern, 78-72, making it three years in a row that the Governors ended the Panthers’ Ohio Valley Conference tournament run.

“I just need to start arm wrestling Carrie (Daniels, Austin Peay head coach). Maybe I could take her, I’m not sure,” Sallee said.

Despite the loss, the Panthers made it a game, holding the lead at one point in the second half; however, Austin Peay came back. Governors’ head coach Carrie Daniels summed up the game rather easily.

“What a game,” Daniels said.

Although the Governors held an eight-point lead in the locker room at halftime, Daniels said her team knew Eastern would make a comeback.

The Panthers did.

“We kind of rallied together and made our run,” junior forward Chantelle Pressley said.

The Panthers outscored the Governors 19-7 in the first seven minutes of the second half to take a 53-49 lead.

Eastern was on fire, shooting 72.7 percent from the field in the first nine minutes of the second half. They finished the second half shooting 52 percent.

“From the start of the second half (Eastern) gained the momentum, but I think our players maintained their composure,” Daniels said.

Austin Peay stopped the Panthers run with help from its work on the boards, grabbing 10 offensive rebounds in the second half.

In the last seven minutes of the game, Sallee said Austin Peay scored 12 of its 18 total second chance points.

“At this time of the year, unfortunately, you don’t have time to miss on those stats,” Sallee said. “When it’s the way you’ve been winning, you really don’t.”

Sophomore guard Ta’Kenya Nixon, who scored a career-high 27 points in the game, said the game came down to the Governors’ wanting it more.

Sallee said Austin Peay showed how bad it wanted the win by going after rebounds.

“When they took shots, they were bound and determined to either make them or get them back until they did,” Sallee said.

Not only did the Governors rebound the ball, but they played with foul trouble. Each of the Governors’ five starting players had two fouls at halftime. Early in the second half, the Governors’ senior guard Brooke Faulkner committed her third and fourth fouls with only five to give in the game before fouling out.

Sallee said the team had a game plan to go after her without letting the focus shift from executing its offense to fouling her out.

“There’s a fine line there of getting too caught up in that,” Sallee said. “What we were trying to do was attack Brooke Faulkner, who seemed to have four fouls for 72 minutes tonight, but we didn’t want to just go haywire.”

Faulkner finished the game with 16 points, playing from the 16:23 mark in the second half with four fouls.

After the game, Faulkner was running on adrenaline.

“I feel like I have enough in me to play 20 more games,” Faulkner said.

Whether it was being out-rebounded, out-scored or out-shot, Sallee said the Panthers were not in position to win the game with those circumstances.

“We haven’t won that game all year. We would never win that game,” Sallee said.

Still, Sallee said the game was another great chapter in the Eastern-Austin Peay rivalry.

Even though it was not in the title game, like the last two years, Daniels said it was just as both teams expected it to be.

“For us to play this early, there was still all of the emotion,” Daniels said.

Prior to Thursday’s game, Austin Peay had beaten every team in the OVC at least once, except Eastern. Again, the Governors got the best of the Panthers in the tournament.

“We’ll keep plugging away,” Sallee said. “We’re going to keep coming back whether you like us here or not.”

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

Head coach Brady Sallee reacts during the final seconds of Eastern’s game against Austin Peay on Thursday in Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium. Austin Peay beat Eastern 72-78 for the third year in a row during the OVC conference championships. (Karolina St

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