The Eastern women’s basketball team shot 28 percent from the field Saturday en route to a 66-49 loss to Southeast Missouri.

The Panthers got off to a 9-2 lead, but struggled to shoot the ball the rest of the first half, scoring 13 points in the remainder of the half.

The Redhawks shooting in the first half was not much better. They shot 9-of-32, including 2-of-10 from the 3-point line.

With the game tied at 29 early in the second half, the Redhawks went on a 12-5 run to give them their biggest lead at seven, capped off by a couple of made free throws by Kenyada Brown.

Brown finished the game with eight points on 2-of-5 shooting.

The Redhawks would continue to go on a scoring run, and started to pull away from the Panthers.

They would have their biggest lead of the game, as the Redhawks were up 14 with less than two minutes to go in the game, and that would pretty much seal the victory for Southeast Missouri.

Redhawks guard Jordan Hunter finished the game with 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting, which included 2-of-4 from the 3-point line.

Katlyn Payne had another rough game shooting the ball, as she would go 2-of-13 from the field, including 1-of-7 from the 3-point line for Eastern.

Payne said her shooting woes are just a mental thing.

“I have to keep working and helping in other aspects of the game, like defense and rebounding,” she said.

The Panthers top three scorers, Jordyne Crunk, Sabina Oroszova and Payne, shot a combined 8-of-36 from the floor.

Crunk and Oroszova scored 12 and 11 points, respectively.

The Panthers will follow up their Saturday trip to Southeast Missouri with another road game against Tennessee-Martin Monday night.

The Skyhawks have scored more than 100 points in their last 3-of-4 games. They have the highest-scoring offense in the Ohio Valley Conference, averaging 80.4 points per game.

Tennessee-Martin also leads the OVC with a 43 field-goal percentage.

Skyhawks guards Heather Butler and Jasmine Newsome are averaging 22 and 19 points a game, respectively.

Payne said the Panthers are going to have to work hard to stop the Skyhawks offense.

“We take pride in our defense and we will work hard to make all the players beat us and not the two guards,” she said.

The Skyhawks come into this game with an 8-0 record in the OVC and is first in the West Division. The Panthers currently have a 3-5 record in the conference and are third in the West Division.

Tennessee-Martin also ranks first in the conference with an average scoring margin of seven points per game.

The two OVC foes will play at 7 p.m. Monday in Martin, Tenn.

Bob Reynolds can be reached at rjreynolds@eiu.edu or 581-2812.