The Eastern women’s basketball team has made a habit of ending the first half of games on big runs. The team did it again Saturday.

The Panthers dominated during a 20-0 run in the last 9:32 of the first half against Morehead State to take a 42-13 lead into the halftime locker room.

Eastern went 7-of-12 from the field and 6-of-10 from the free throw line during the run, which highlighted a lopsided first half.

At halftime, the Panthers led by 29 points, made 16 more free throws, grabbed 13 more rebounds, committed 12 fewer fouls, and six fewer turnovers.

“It was awesome,” freshman forward Sabina Oroszova said. “We just dominated.”

Eastern head coach Brady Sallee said his team’s first half performance was as good as it has played all season.

The first half was almost a polar opposite to the way Eastern played Wednesday against Southeast Missouri when the junior guard Ta’Kenya Nixon said the Panthers were watching the scoreboard and trying to win the game in the first four minutes of the game.

Sallee said the team worked hard in practice to prevent that from happening again this week.

“We did a lot of work in the last couple days between their ears just trying to set the table for February and understanding what February basketball is all about,” Sallee said.

Besides being mentally ready to play, the Panthers had a game plan they followed to perfection – getting the ball in the paint and exploiting Morehead State’s weakness.

Actually, Morehead State’s tallest player to see playing time was Mackenzi Arledge, who is 6-foot-2. Arledge played 16 minutes, but didn’t score any points.

King could feel the advantage in height and even though the Golden Eagles weren’t as short as she thought, she still had a dominant game. King scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds.

The Panthers made an effort to get the ball in the paint. Sallee said it was in the game plan.

“We did a great job executing in the first half and did a good job getting it in (the paint) with (Oroszova), Mariah, even at the end there with DeAnna and Taryn,” Sallee said. “We got the ball right where it needed to go.”

King was 10-of-15 from the field, attempting six more shots than anyone on the team. Oroszova was second on the team in that category, going 5-of-9 from the field. Oroszova had 11 points and eight rebounds.

“We were so much taller than them so we took advantage of that,” Oroszova said.

The Panthers improve to 19-4 overall (10-0 in the Ohio Valley Conference). Their next game is Monday at 7 p.m. in Lantz Arena against Eastern Kentucky.

Monday’s game will be one of two games the Panthers have left at home.

Alex McNamee can be reached at 581-7942 or admcnamee@eiu.edu.