NASHVILLE — What started out as a normal semifinal game between two Ohio Valley Conference women’s basketball teams, turned into a life experience in the basement of the Nashville Municipal Auditorium with a few flickering lights and a tornado warning.  

The OVC tournament game between Eastern and Tennessee Tech was suspended with 6:09 left in the second half and everyone – fans, media, teams – were asked to move to the basement of the arena.  

Tennessee Tech dominated Eastern until the time of the delay, holding a furiously debated seven-point lead on the Panthers. Eastern came back to move the game to overtime, but lost, 81-72.  

The public address announcer warned everyone in the arena a few minutes earlier that there was a tornado warning in the county. When the buzzer sounded to suspend the game while the ball was in play, some players kept moving – namely, Tech’s Tacarra Hayes.  

Seconds after the buzzer sounded, Hayes went up for a shot and sank it, making the score 63-56. In a game eventually tied with seconds left in regulation and decided in overtime, the referees’ decision to count the two-point basket with 6:09 left was going to be argued. 

The PA announcer told everyone to leave the floor and head to the basement, but as people filed away from the court Eastern head coach Brady Sallee threw his arms up in the air wondering why the referees counted the basket on the scoreboard. 

Tennessee Tech head coach Sytia Messer yelled for the referees to stay with their ruling. 

The court cleared and the scoreboard stayed the same after the basket, 63-56.  Both coaches thought they were right about the decision to count or discount the bucket, and both told different stories of the moment. 

Sallee said the players might have already been distracted by announcement earlier in the half telling people to seek shelter.  

“You’ve already heard the announcement of tornadoes and the stands are emptying and a buzzer goes off. What are you expecting 18 to 22 year olds to do,” Sallee said.  

Eastern junior guard Ta’Kenya Nixon said all she thought was, “Run!”  Sallee said he was worried about finding his family, getting them on the court with him and making sure they were safe.  

On the other hand, Messer said nobody on her team heard the buzzer until after Hayes made the two-pointer.  

“We didn’t hear it until we heard a horn after Tacarra made the basket. We didn’t notice people were leaving,” Messer said. “We were so in tune with the game.” 

After a 22-minute delay, everyone was let back into the arena and the referees counted the bucket and offered the coaches an explanation. 

Sallee said the referees told him the players had to play through the buzzer. 

“Is there a textbook of how to handle it? Maybe I wish there was,” Sallee said.  

Nixon said the team got refocused during the delay, as they huddled in the middle of a bunch of fans and media in the basement.  The Panthers unleashed a storm of their own when they were let back onto the court to play.

 They clawed back into the game. Tech held a 65-59 lead with 4:19 to go in the game, but bodies started flying all over the floor as the Panthers inched back into contention.  

Off a missed shot, junior forward Mariah King dove onto the floor to grab and offensive rebound. 

She passed it back to sophomore guard Jordyne Crunk who sank a two-point jumper to make it 65-61 with 3:46 to go.  

On the next possession, Nixon nabbed her only steal of the game and sprinted down the court for a lay-up. The Panthers trailed 65-63.  Then the nerves set in. 

Senior forward Chantelle Pressley went to the line for Eastern to try to tie the game and went 1-for-2.  Tech led 67-64 with 2:08 to play and Mitchell went to the free throw line and went 1-for-2 to make the game 67-65.  

Tech matched that by going 1-of-2 at the line with 1:34 to play to keep a lead the lead 68-65.  

Eastern had its first chance to tie the game on the next possession but it turned the ball over when junior guard Kelsey Wyss passed the ball too low and passed Crunk’s feet for a turnover.  

Eastern’s defense stepped up and gave itself a chance on the last possession after forcing a shot clock violation on Tech’s next possession.  

Eastern had the ball, trailing by three points with 27 seconds to play. Sallee said the Panthers set up a ball screen for Nixon, but she was shut down by Tech’s zone defense. “We took a gamble,” Messer said. 

“We were up three with 30 seconds left and we played zone. They needed a three.” The clock ticked down to 12 seconds and Tech’s Jala Harris accidentally stepped away from Eastern junior forward Sydney Mitchell. Mitchell said she saw the shot was open and stepped back to make sure she was behind the three-point line. 

She sank it. 

The Eastern bench went crazy. 

“Everyone screaming, ‘Shoot!’ may have had something to do with (Mitchell’s shot),” Nixon said. 

With the game now tied, 68-68, Tech decided to let its offense play the game out. Hayes had the ball in her hand and had a chance at a contested lay-up.  

King stood, hands up, in the paint to make Hayes adjust her shot, and the shot bounced off the side of the rim and into King’s hands to bring the game to overtime. 

After Harris came out and sank a three-pointer for Tech to start the overtime, Eastern’s Crunk turned the ball over. 

However, the Panther defense seemed to still be playing well as Crunk came back on Tech’s fast break and forced a charge. But the shots weren’t falling for Eastern. 

Nixon made two free throws to make the game 71-70, but the Panthers didn’t score again until there was 12 seconds left in the game. 

“We took good team shots,” Nixon said. “We couldn’t get going on the defensive end. We just can’t forget what got us here and today we did.” 

Tech went on a 10-0 run before Eastern scored again, and by then the game was over.  

“This game was one of the most well fought games I’ve seen in a long time from both parties,” Messer said.  

Tech’s Harris and Hayes said going into overtime they were ready to take the team on their shoulders and win the game. 

They did. 

Harris and Hayes scored 10 of the Golden Eagles’ 13 points in overtime – Harris tallied seven of the 10.  

The Panthers were 1-of-8 from the field in overtime, but Sallee said the Panthers lost the game by getting beat rebounding and by Tech shooting the ball so well. 

“The offensive end was not what beat us,” Sallee said. “We have not won a game when we have been outrebounded and give up 45 percent from the field. We’re just not going to win that game. It’s not our equation.” 

Sallee said he gives Tech credit for putting his team in a tough situation where it doesn’t win a lot of games. He said Tech’s zone forced the Panthers to shoot more jump shots than drive the ball to the basket like they like to. Messer said forcing jump shots was part of the gameplan. 

“I think Nixon is by far better going off the dribble,” Messer said. “We wanted to pack it in and say, ‘Beat us from the outside.’” 

Messer said it was a sweet victory to beat the Panthers in the tournament after the Panthers beat her team on its home floor earlier this season by one point. 

“I didn’t have to do a lot of motivation,” Messer said. “The pressure was not on us.” 

The Panthers, who were the No. 2 seed coming into the tournament, will not advance to play in the NCAA Tournament; however, they’ll play in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT). 

No. 1 seed Tennessee-Martin clinched back-to-back tournament wins Saturday, beating Tennessee Tech. 

With that, Eastern is guaranteed a spot in the WNIT.  The Panthers will wait for the 64-team field to be announced March 12.   

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