Yes, the Eastern women’s basketball team clinched the Ohio Valley Conference’s west division Saturday. Yes, the Panthers solidified themselves as one of the top two seeds in the OVC Tournament. Yes, that means they will definitely play on March 8.

Sure, go ahead and make your travel plans and hotel reservations. 

But don’t think the team is giddy and patting itself on the back. This kind of thing is fun for a couple hours after a 4 p.m. Saturday game, but when the players and coaches wake up the next day, it’s not fun anymore.

These accolades and scenarios are fun for reporters to write about, but do not mean much more to the Panthers than just another check mark on a longer list of things to do this season.

“We’d like to win it all,” Eastern head coach Lee Buchanan said. “(The players) cheered, but they want to take (the title).”

There are only two more games in the regular season, which does not seem like a lot after playing 27 others, but it is.

“It’s a long way,” Eastern senior guard Ta’Kenya Nixon said. “We appreciate where we are right now, but know it’s not over and we have a while to go.”

The Panthers beat Belmont, 60-43, Saturday in the two teams’ first game against each other in the respective programs’ histories. 

There was an extended “feeling out” period to start the game, as Buchanan said he expected, when the teams combined for only 12 points in the first 8:11 of the game.

But after that, the Panthers had a handle on the game, taking a seven-point lead within the next 3:51 with the Panthers making 4-of-5 shots in that stretch and Belmont 1-of-8.

The Panthers took an 11-point lead into the half, but not without some fireworks in the last minute of the first half.

Nixon controlled the ball in the last minute of the half and sank a jumper with 41 seconds left, which didn’t allow Belmont to hold the ball on their next possession for the last shot.

Belmont’s Katie Carroll missed a 3-pointer with 13 seconds left and Eastern senior forward Sydney Mitchell rebounded the ball and passed it ahead to Nixon, who jetted down the floor for another jumper with four seconds left.

But that was not it, as Belmont inbounded the ball to Katie Brooks, who took a half-court shot before the buzzer and made it.

The end of the half, though, signified the end of a warming-up period for Nixon, who scored seven of her nine first-half points in the final 2:57. 

“I couldn’t score. I couldn’t get to the rim,” Nixon said. “My attitude was to do whatever it took.”

Nixon finished with a game-high of 23 points and nine rebounds.

The game opened up for the Panthers in the second half, especially after Belmont abandoned its offensive style, Buchanan said. 

The Panthers led by 18 points with 12:37 left in the game and Belmont changed from being a structured team, to trying to make shots off of screens.

“They got away from their sets and went into some ball screen, pick-and-roll stuff, which isn’t their everyday plan,” Buchanan said. “They started trying to make shots they’re not used to shooting.”

The Panthers were ready to take Belmont out of its game plan because Buchanan had relentlessly scouted them all week.

“I watched five game films on them, just trying to pick up ideas and tendencies on them,” Buchanan said. “We had their plays and took them out of the stuff they wanted to do.”

The Panthers never held less than a double-digit lead in the second half, but Nixon said it felt a lot closer. 

“It felt like they were right on your behind,” Nixon said. “The whole game, until the buzzer, was so intense and so tight that you couldn’t make a mistake.”

They didn’t make many, leading to their West Division-clinching win Saturday.

But, as a reminder, that’s nothing more than another check mark for the Panthers.

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