Eastern women’s basketball fell short of now 5-0 Saint Louis by a final score of 78-47 on Saturday.

With the loss, Eastern is now 1-5 on the season and has dropped their fifth-straight game since winning the season opener at home.

Despite a result that would suggest a different scenario, Eastern was within striking distance in the early stages of the game.

After the first quarter, Eastern managed to keep the deficit small at 17-15. At one point during the quarter, they actually led by a point as the momentum switched back and forth.

Once the second quarter began, Eastern traded baskets with Saint Louis a number of times, but the game started to pull away from them.

Eastern trailed 38-27 at the half and was hitting 35.7 percent of their shots. Saint Louis was shooting at 37.1 percent but took seven more shots than Eastern and almost tripled the Panthers in free-throw attempts.

The second half is when Saint Louis took the game over as they outscored Eastern 40-20 while hitting 53.3 percent of their field-goal attempts.

Eastern converted 18.5 percent of their shot attempts in the second half.

Eastern’s scoring production was led by junior forward Erica Brown with her 13 points off 5-9 shooting. She also made three free throws and had six rebounds.

To this point, Brown leads the team in scoring with 70 total points and an 11.7 points-per-game average. She has also led the team in rebounds with 7.3 per game.

Freshman forward Halle Stull recorded 12 points while going 50 percent from the field. She also posted six rebounds. She has averaged 7.7 points and four rebounds per game.

Senior guard Alece Shumpert was once again productive with her 10 points and five rebounds. Her season average is now up to 7.2 points per game.

During the game, Eastern was outrebounded 46-33 which is among their largest rebounding gaps of the season.

Four of Eastern’s five losses have come away from Lantz Arena.

In the road games that Eastern has played in this season, Eastern’s offense is producing about 50 points per game and is allowing teams to score 74 points per game.

While at home, Eastern is posting 73 points per game, along with their lone win so far this season.

Eastern will have a chance to end their losing streak and build some momentum back on their home floor as they host Western Illinois Wednesday.

Western Illinois is 4-3 and fresh off a double-digit road win over Bethune-Cookman.

In Eastern’s matchup with Western Illinois last season, Western won at home by a final score of 64-53.

The two teams will play on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Lantz Arena.

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