Defense key to success
Nobody on the Eastern’s women’s basketball team expects today’s road game against Morehead State to be as lopsided as its 20-point win in the two teams’ previous game.
Eastern head coach Brady Sallee said the Panthers may have played their best half of basketball in the game against Morehead State Feb. 4. The Panthers led 42-13 at halftime in the game.
“That’s unheard of,” Sallee said.
Sallee said the team knows it’s going to get Morehead State’s best shot, especially on the Golden Eagles’ home floor in Morehead, Ky.
“(Morehead State is) a prideful bunch,” Sallee said.
Going into today’s game, the Panthers are more focused on playing the way they know they can play, especially on defense.
Junior guard Ta’Kenya Nixon said the Panthers got selfish on defense during the past three games, in which they went 1-2.
Nixon said the Panthers usually play a team defense, and they have to get back to that. “We have to be the EIU we’ve been all year, not the EIU we’ve been the past week,” Nixon said.
Nixon said she thinks the Panthers can win their final two regular season games, today and Saturday, if they return to playing team defense.
Junior guard Kelsey Wyss said playing team defense will take away Morehead State’s strengths.
“As long as we’re communicating and playing our defense, it doesn’t matter what they do,” Wyss said.
In the Panthers’ last two losses, Sallee said the team was not playing consistent defense.
Sallee said the Panthers only played about one half of good defense against Tennessee-Martin and still almost won the game.
Against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville on Saturday, Sallee said the team lacked effort. “If you go back and watch film, or don’t even watch film, you can point to the effort where (SIU-E) played that much harder than we did,” Sallee said.
Sallee said the Panthers will have to play championship-level defense during the next two games to come out with wins.
He also said the Panthers have to embrace who they are. “It’s time to be who you are,” Sallee said. “Luckily for us, who we are is a 21-6 team and pretty doggone good. We’re a Ta’Kenya Nixon-led basketball team with a lot of really good parts to the puzzle.”
With the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament coming up, Nixon said it’s time for Eastern to embrace who it is rather than worry about fixing things.
“There’s not much time to fix a lot,” Nixon said. “We’re trying to be the best team we are right now.”
Wyss said losing two of the past three games has helped realize how intense the last month of the season is.
“We saw what February means and know what we have to do to stay where we’re at, and prepare for the tournament coming up,” Wyss said.
The Panthers will play Morehead State at 4:15 p.m. today in Morehead, Ky.
Alex McNamee can be reached at 581-7942 or admcnamee@eiu.edu.
