The last two scoring plays in the Eastern women’s basketball team’s history-making win over Missouri Wednesday night were the same thing, but senior guard Ta’Kenya Nixon did something different on each of them.

Eastern coach Lee Buchanan knew his star player, Nixon, was on fire — having scored 25 points entering the final two minutes of the game — so he kept calling plays for her to either score or create an opportunity for somebody else.

Nixon ran an isolation play with a little more than two minutes to go and drew a double team as she got close to the basket.

Instead of going up for a shot, and maybe being fouled, Nixon dished the ball to senior forward Sydney Mitchell, who struggled with only two points up to that point.

Mitchell got the ball at the top of the key and sank the shot, a sign of Nixon’s unselfishness.

Going into Wednesday’s game, Buchanan said Nixon would be happy going scoreless as long as the Panthers won — the irony being that she needed to score for the team to win, he said.

Nixon set up Mitchell for the game-tying basket with 2:05 left and then scored on an identical isolation play with 19 seconds left to give her team the lead.

“When those type of things happen, you know that you have a player who is playing a good floor game all around,” Buchanan said.

Nixon scored her 27th point when she made the up-and-under shot with 19 seconds left.

Then, she ended up with the game-winning steal as time expired.

Buchanan said he had no clue what kind of stat line Nixon ended the game with: 27 points, five assists and four steals.

“That’s big,” Buchanan said. “It was kind of a quiet 27. I didn’t think she had 27 when the game was over.”

Nixon’s 27-point game was three points shy of her career-high in points, but she became the program’s all-time leading scorer in the first half when she reached 12 points.

Rachel Galligan broke what was a 26-year-old points record in 2009 as she finished her career with 1,891 points.

Nixon needed 12 points entering the first round Women’s National Invitation Tournament game against Missouri on Wednesday. At halftime, she knew she had it.

“I didn’t really want to celebrate,” Nixon said. “I didn’t want to get out of my zone.”

All Nixon did during the game, after scoring her 12th point with 3:13 left in the first half, was to share a quick smile with her teammates and coaches on the bench.

After the game, Nixon had a missed call from an elated Galligan, one of Nixon’s close friends. Also, Nixon received a number of congratulations on Facebook and Twitter.

“It’s just a very good night,” Nixon said.

Now, Nixon has 1,907 points in her career and, at least, one more game to play.

The Panthers will play in the second round of the WNIT, having won its first postseason game in program history on Wednesday.

Eastern will play the winner of the Illinois vs. Miami (Ohio) first-round game.

At press time, the winner of that game hadn’t been decided.

The date and location of the game are yet to be decided, too, though the game will either be played Saturday, Sunday or Monday.

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