The Eastern women’s basketball will return back home for a game against Loyola-Chicago Tuesday after losing on Sunday to Memphis.

Eastern is off to a 1-1 start to the season during opening weekend.

Coach Debbie Black said she was satisfied with the start that the team is off to.

“I’m more than happy with where we’re at right now,” Black said. “I’d take this all the time.”

Through their first two games, Eastern has averaged 63 points per game and has hit 37 percent of its shot attempts.

Sophomore guard Grace Lennox is second on the team in points per game with an average of 11. She has also averaged 5 assists and 5.5 rebounds.

Lennox said she was happy with the way she’s started the season, especially in the opening game.

“I felt pretty good that I had a strong start to the season,” Lennox said. “I was working hard all offseason and doing everything I could to get my body right. It was a confidence booster to put my hard work to action.”

Junior forward Erica Brown has led the team in scoring with 16 points per game. She has also recorded 6.5 assists per game and has made four total blocks, both of which lead the team.

Players like sophomore guard Mariah Madison, senior guard Alece Shumpert, freshman forward Brittin Boyer and senior guard Shakita Cox have all seen scoring production early on with 7, 7, 5.5 and 5.5, respectively.

As a team, Eastern is sharing the ball at a rate of 12.5 assists per game.

However, they are turning the ball over at a rate of 18.5 giveaways per game.

They’ll face a Loyola-Chicago defense that allowed 84 points and a 37.5 percent field-goal rate in their only game, against Georgia Tech.

On the defensive side for Eastern, they’ve allowed an average of 75.5 points per game and a 43.3 shot conversion percentage.

Eastern has also averaged seven steals and forced their opponents to commit 17.5 turnovers per game. Lennox leads the team in steals with four.

The Panthers are also averaging 38.5 rebounds per game, which is close to the 40 that their opponents are averaging so far.

They’ll be facing a Loyola-Chicago offense that scored 77 points in their only game and shot 40.7 percent from the floor.

Loyola-Chicago is led by junior guard Taylor Johnson who posted 18 points off a 7-15 shooting performance against Georgia Tech. She also made seven rebounds in her 32 minutes of action.

Black said she’d like to see her team get back on track and pick up another solid home win.

“We’ve faced some adversity already this year,” Black said. “We just need to go out and play well again. We’ve done well this season, so far.”

Tip-off is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start in Lantz Arena.

Elias Albert can be reached at 581-2812 or at ewalbert@eiu.edu