The Eastern women’s basketball team was the big sister in charge of the show Tuesday night against a smaller Oakland City team, in Eastern’s 56-point win.

The Panthers, in what was the their final non-conference game before the season’s final stretch run, knew they had a physical advantage going into the game.

Eastern senior guard Ta’Kenya Nixon knew they were under pressure to exploit the advantage early and often.

The Panthers showed their strength, size and length during a 31-second offensive sequence, grabbing four offensive rebounds to keep possession of the ball.

The possession was one example of the Panthers’ dominance that led to 23 offensive rebounds in the game and 65 total boards.

What isn’t forgotten during the 31-second sequence, though, is that the Panthers didn’t come out of it with points — missing five shots.

Three of those shots were 3-pointers — three of the 17 attempts total from beyond the arc in the first half. That didn’t sit well with Eastern head coach Lee Buchanan.

“Everybody wanted to be a 3-point shooter,” Buchanan said. “I wanted to execute some offense.”

Nixon said it was difficult to pass up those shots early in the game because they were open looks, or the shooter could see over the smaller defender.

“I joined in,” joked Nixon, who only took two three-point attempts in the game. “(Buchanan) wanted us to run the offense, but there were some wide open shots.”

The Panthers made three of their first four from three-point range, but ended the half on a 2-for-13 dry spell.

It didn’t hurt the Panthers, though, because Oakland City was 3-of-19 from three-point range in the first half and only made 19.4 percent of their shots in the first half.

“There were a lot of missed shots,” Buchanan said. “Maybe that’s a tribute to our size. There were 95 rebounds and we had 65 of them.”

Oakland City was outplayed in most aspects of the game. Eastern outrebounded the Division II school, 65-30. Eastern made seven more free throws than Oakland City even made in shots. Eastern had 17 steals on 19 Oakland City turnovers.

“It’s all due to knowing the (Oakland City) plays and the scouting (report),” Nixon said.

The Panthers’ offense also came out ready to play, grabbing a 10-point lead in the first 2:11 of the game. Later, the Panthers strung together a 14-2 run in the first 4:30 of the second half.

Oakland City faced a 27-point deficit with 8:26 left in the first half, which was the Panthers’ largest lead at the time.

The Panthers took the game seriously, said Eastern senior forward Sydney Mitchell, even though a win or loss wouldn’t affect the Panthers’ Ohio Valley Conference standing.

“Fear none, respect all,” Mitchell said. “I didn’t come in thinking we had this game. I still looked at it as if we were playing Murray (State), SIU-E or another top school.”

Buchanan said it was important for his team to respect Oakland City, even though it was a Division II team; after all, the two teams are similar.

“Oakland City is a group of 18 to 22 years old women, who are student athletes,” Buchanan said. “They’re trying to win a championship just like us.”

The Panthers respected Oakland City on the way to setting season highs in rebounds and steals.

The win extended the Panthers’ win streak to five games, but all that matters is that it’s another step in the right direction.

“Everything is a building block to a championship run we’re trying to put together,” Buchanan said.

Alex McNamee can be reached at 581-2812 or admcnamee@eiu.edu.