The Eastern-Murray State women’s basketball game may not have been the main attraction of the 1,016 fans Saturday night in Lantz Arena, but it was a meaningful game all the same.

The Eastern women’s basketball team kept its stronghold on the top spot in the Ohio Valley Conference with a 73-59 win and avenged its early season loss to the Racers.

The Panthers finished the game making nine of their last 11 shots, taking a seven-point lead and expanding it to the final 14-point win, even though both teams went through lulls of scoring throughout the game.

The Panthers led 30-22 at halftime, although neither team shot better than 28.6 percent from the field; in fact, the teams combined to only make 11-of-48 baskets in the first 12:08 of the game.

“We were all shooting in our comfort zone,” Eastern junior forward Taryn Olson said. “Our shots weren’t falling.”

In that early stretch of the game, Olson had five of the Panthers’ 18 points. From 3-point range, the teams were even worse — only making 2-of-13 from behind the arc.

Both teams went to the halftime locker room with top scorers struggling. Eastern senior guard Ta’Kenya Nixon had five points on 2-of-11 shooting. Murray State’s Mariah Robinson six points on 2-of-8 shooting.

In the second half, both players came alive — Robinson first.

Robinson led the Racers on an 11-0 run to start the second half. She hit a 3-pointer to start the second half scoring. Then, Eastern turned the ball over, which led to an easy Murray State layup, and the scoring frenzy was in full swing.

Murray State’s Erica Sisk sank a 3-pointer to tie the game, 30-30, followed by another Robinson 3-pointer to take a three-point lead, 33-30.

But even as Murray State scored the first 11 points, Eastern coach Lee Buchanan didn’t call a timeout — or didn’t have time to, because Nixon pushed the ball down the floor and got fouled as she made a layup, making it a three-point play. 

Eastern scored seven consecutive points, including Nixon’s three-point play, after Murray State took the lead by three points; however, Nixon’s rush to the basket to tie the game, 33-33, was a sign of things to come — and the Racers could not handle it.

The Panthers knew going into the game that Murray State’s defense liked to tighten up and make opponents shoot over them, which was one of the things that led to Eastern’s loss earlier this season to the Racers in Murray, Ky. 

Nixon struggled with this throughout the game, missing numerous pull-up jumpers. She was 2-of-11 in the first half.

But by pushing the pace of the game, the Panthers didn’t let Murray State get set on defense. Instead, the Panthers rushed out to fast breaks and got easy layups. 

“We did a lot better job of playing quicker in this game,” Buchanan said. “The tempo was exactly where we wanted it.”

Leading by three points with 15:05 left in the game, the Panthers made five of their next five shots to bust out to a 10-point lead with 11:22 to play.

Then, the Panthers went through a scoring slump, only making one of their next six shots, but they held to a seven-point lead.

Finally, the Panthers finished on a run of making 9-of-11 shots to secure a victory, while Murray State finished 5-of-10 from the field.

The win improved Eastern’s conference record to 10-2, the best in the league, while Murray State fell to 7-5 in conference play.

The Panthers will play the second-worst team in the OVC, Austin Peay, at 7 p.m. on Monday in Lantz Arena.

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