Tennessee-Martin’s Taylor Hall may be responsible for triggering the Eastern women’s basketball team’s downfall at the end of this season.

The Panthers were on cloud nine going into their Feb. 11 match-up with the Skyhawks, the future Ohio Valley Conference champions, with a 20-4 record overall and undefeated in the OVC.

The Panthers fought back from a 12-point deficit to take a lead, but with five seconds remaining in the game Hall sank a desperation 35-foot shot to tie the game and send it to overtime.

Eastern head coach Brady Sallee said the Panthers “mentally went night-night” after the shot. From that moment on, watching that shot go in Sallee said the team couldn’t get over it.

“It was something that all of a sudden all of the doubts that were deep down in the back of our heads came to the forefront,” Sallee said.

The Skyhawks blew out Eastern in overtime to send the Panthers on their way to a rocky end to the season. After the loss, Eastern lost four of its last six games of the season.

Looking back, Sallee said Hall’s shot plus Eastern’s tough schedule – six of seven final games on the road or at neutral sites – equaled a bad equation for his team.

“The adversity we had to handle in the pursuit of a championship was something we had some kids not handle real well,” Sallee said.

Some players handled it well, like junior guard Ta’Kenya Nixon, who averaged 26 points per game in the last three games. Others scored fewer points than they had all season. Junior forwards Mariah King and Sydney Mitchell lost nearly a point from each of their season averages.

Nixon raised her game, but didn’t have the help of others stepping up, like the teams who went far in the OVC tournament did.

Sallee said the two teams who played in the OVC title game, Tennessee-Martin and Tennessee Tech, had two players who took charge.

In the only game Eastern played in the tournament, Nixon scored 23 points. The next best scorers were King and Mitchell with 11 and 10 points, respectively. The team Eastern played, Tennessee Tech, had two players score over 20 points and two with 10 points.

“You have opportunities as a player to step up as a player or step out,” Sallee said. “We weren’t as fortunate.”

The Panthers bounced back from the Tennessee-Martin loss with a one-point, road win against Tennessee Tech two days later; however, Sallee said he and the players weren’t as happy as they let on.

“We had kids not wanting to take shots,” Sallee said. “We clammed up, but we won.”

The next game was Eastern’s last at home, against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. The Panthers lost, tainting their perfect home record, in what Sallee said was virtually the same game they played against Tech.

Sallee said the short time following that game was when the team had to finally admit, “We’re in trouble. We have to get this fixed.”

“That was the first time, even though the doubt and lack of trust started coming in with the 35-foot shot at Martin, we had to admit that when we lost to SIU-E,” Sallee said.

Following the loss, Eastern lost a game “we had to business losing” to Morehead State, Salle said. Then, the Panthers beat Eastern Kentucky by three points and lost in the OVC Tournament and Women’s National Invitational Tournament.

“When you have a fragile team that is searching for answers playing on the road, it brings a tough factor into it,” Sallee said.

It wasn’t until after the OVC Tournament loss to Tennessee Tech Sallee said the Panthers finally got a chance to rest and regroup. The Panthers had 13 days between the Tennessee Tech and Texas Tech game, whereas the Panthers played six games in 20 days to end the regular season and OVC Tournament.

The Panthers lost to Texas Tech, but Sallee said he was happy to end the season with how well the team fought in the game.

Even so, Sallee said it’s disappointing to look back on the season knowing your team didn’t reach its potential.

“We could not get over that let down, that shot going in,” Sallee said. “That was the defining blow.”

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