The disbelief in their faces, their minds searching for answers and their hearts dangling from their sleeves, Eastern junior guard Ta’Kenya Nixon and Eastern head coach Brady Sallee had a difficult time defining Saturday’s loss to Southern Illinois-Edwardsville.

The Eastern women’s basketball team, leading at halftime 28-22, came out of the locker room and watched its in-state rivals blast off on a 14-0 run that lasted the first five minutes of the second half.

For the rest of the game, Eastern’s hopes of finishing undefeated in Lantz Arena this season fell to the floor, losing 59-54.

“They came out and we looked like we didn’t want any part of it,” Nixon said of the second half run. “One basket leads to another basket, which leads to the momentum. Before you know it you’re down 10 points or whatever.”

Trailing by eight – not 10 – the Panthers continually had to fight back into the game. Nixon led the team’s first comeback to make it 42-41 with 7:40 to go in the game. During the 10-2 run that brought the Panthers back into contention, Nixon scored eight points.

But as soon as the Panthers came close to regaining the lead, the Cougars made shots to halt the Panthers’ momentum. After the Panthers’ run to get the game to within one point, the Cougars scored the next four points.

The one-point deficit was as close as Eastern would come to regaining the lead, although trailing 57-54 with 28 seconds left following a three pointer by junior guard Kelsey Wyss, the Panthers’ hopes looked promising.

The Panthers took a timeout to discuss the strategy on the next possession, knowing they’d have to foul if they couldn’t get a turnover.

The Panthers faltered, unable to force a turnover and unable to chase down the Cougars’ ball handler, who wasn’t fouled until there was four seconds left in the game.

“We were trying to foul, and had our chances, but it seemed like we were a day late and a dollar short, which may be a microcosm of the entire game,” Sallee said. “That’s how that play actually played out. Almost karma.”

The Cougars’ Katie Hempen hit two free throws to seal the game at the free throw line.

But if that possession wasn’t what defined the game, it was the Cougars’ Raven Berry. Berry dominated Eastern in the post, grabbing 22 rebounds and scoring 15 points.

“(We) got whooped at that position big time,” Sallee said. “That has not happened a lot at that position in my eight years (at Eastern).”

Eastern got the ball into the paint to players like juniors Mariah King and Sydney Mitchell, and senior Chantelle Pressley, but they couldn’t score.

The three starting post players combined to go 5-of-22 from the field, scoring a combined 16 points. The Panthers’ main post player off the bench, freshman forward Sabina Oroszova, was 1-of-6 from the field.

Sallee said Berry was the best post player Saturday, and Nixon said Berry played harder than any other players, by far.

“You can tell who wanted to be here tonight and that’s the result,” Nixon said.

Southern Illinois-Edwardsville beat Eastern for the first time in the two programs’ series history Saturday.

The Panthers’ last two regular season games are on the road. First they’ll play Morehead State at 4:15 p.m. Thursday in Morehead, Ky.

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