The Eastern women’s basketball team will host 5-3 Stetson at 2 p.m. Sunday at 2 p.m.

The Panthers will come in off an 82-71 home loss to Milwaukee and are now on an eight-game losing streak after winning the opening game on the season.

During the game, Eastern saw an early deficit that grew before halftime to 47-32. As the third quarter proceeded, they got themselves back into the game by outscoring Milwaukee, 21-13, during the quarter.

Despite outscoring Milwaukee, 39-35, in the second half, Eastern still came up short.

Coach Debbie Black said she thought her team needed to come away with a win in the Milwaukee game, for the sake of regrouping.

“This was a pretty tough one,” Black said. “We needed this one more for us than anything. We really didn’t play well in the first 10 minutes, but we took a lot of things from this game.”

Senior guard Shakita Cox led the team in scoring with her 21 points off 5-7 shooting. Four of her five makes came from the behind the three-point line.

To this point in the season, Eastern has been led by junior forward Erica Brown, who is averaging 11.3 points per game.

Brown also leads the team with 7.9 rebounds per game. She is also hitting 46 percent of her shots.

With her strong performance, Cox solidified herself at second on the team in scoring, with an average of 11.1 points per game. She has been making 42 percent of her field goals.

Freshman forward Halle Stull has propelled herself to third on the team in scoring with her eight points and 4.6 rebounds per game.

Eastern’s upcoming opponent, Stetson, is currently outscoring their opponents 73.2-55.9 so far this season.

Offensively, Stetson is hitting 46 percent of their shots and 29.9 percent of their three pointers. Also, they’re only committing

On defense, Stetson is allowing their opponents to convert 36.8 percent of its field-goal attempts.

Stetson is lead in scoring junior guard Brianti Saunders as she has recorded 15.8 points per game this season so far.

Stetson has also saw production from junior forward Breana Bey, who has scored 14.9 points eight rebounds per game this season.

Where Stetson is behind when it comes to statistical categories is on the side of rebounding.

They have outrebounded by a margin of less than one per game but have averaged over 12 boards on the offensive side.

Black has said she would like to see improvement on the rebounding side, which she said could lead to more success.

“We need be consistent when it comes to getting rebounds,” Black said. “We need to control what we can control. I think it’s very important for us to improve there.”

Eastern will have a chance to end their losing streak and pick up their second win of the season at 2 p.m. Sunday in Lantz Arena.

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