The Eastern women’s basketball team lost its fifth-straight game on Sunday afternoon in Tempe, Ariz., against Lehigh 72-69.

With the Panthers down one with eight seconds left in the game, Shakita Cox turned the ball over, which forced her to foul Lexi Martins and she converted the two free throws for the Mountain Hawks giving them the three-point advantage.

The Panthers would miss their 3-point shot at the buzzer to fall to 3-9 on the season.

Trailing 41-37 at halftime, the Panthers went on a 16-4 run to push their lead to nine points with 14 minutes left in the half.

Lehigh answered by going on a 17-2 run to give them a six point lead, capped off by a couple of three’s made by Bernadette Devaney.

With 4:05 to play in the second half, the Panthers closed the gap to 64-63, capped off by an Arnisha Thomas jumper.

Lehigh would hold a one point advantage until the final moments and improve to 8-1 on the season.

Sabina Oroszova led the Panthers with 24 points on 10-of-18 shooting from the floor and Arnisha Thomas had a career-high shooting day with 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting.

The Panthers shot 53 percent from the floor, which was one of their best shooting performances on the season, but struggled at the free throw line by going 8-of-17 in the game.

Eastern limited its turnovers to 12 in Sunday’s game, compared to Saturday against Northwestern, they had 31.

Also, the Panthers did outscore Lehigh 34-28 in points in the paint.

Lehigh had four players in double-digits including Martins.

Kerry Kinek scored 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting.

Also, Elizabeth Jordan and Sarah Williams had 12 and 10 points, respectively.

The Panthers will have six days off before hosting St. Louis in Lantz Arena on Saturday, which is their last game before starting the conference portion of the schedule.

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