Sophomore guard Grace Lennox reached a career high of 23 points in Wednesday night’s game, but this wasn’t enough to pass the three-point lead Murray State took in overtime.

Lennox wasted no time in bringing in the points for the Panthers, reaching 10 points by the start of second quarter. The sophomore guard turned things up a notch by picking up the game pace to keep points on the board against a tight defense.

Lennox took a brutal foul in overtime from Murray State’s Abria Gulledge in an attempt to fight for the rebound in the final seconds of the game after regulation.

“I don’t know what happened honestly we all were playing hard, and the game was close,” Lennox said.

But Gulledge was the least of Lennox’s problems playing against the Racer’s starting guard LeAsia Wright. Both Wright and Lennox fell into a back and forth battle with ball possession, drives to the basket and three point shots.

Lennox said, “Murry State’s was definitely tight with her defense, but I just found a way to get around that for my team.”

The Panther were able to take a three-point lead over Murray State, but the Racers rallied back for a seven-point stretch at the end of third quarter.

Eastern’s Jalisha Smith, a freshman forward, obtained nine rebounds leading into the fourth quarter, converting points for the Panthers still down six at the start of the fourth.

“Smith always gets in the game and goes after the ball,” EIU women’s basketball head coach Debbie Black said, “For a girl of her size up against a lot of bigger forwards she definitely does not hesitate to reach for a rebound and take back up.”

Redshirt senior guard Shakita Cox for the Panthers also put up double-digit points, ending the night with 15 points. Her score was followed by junior forward Erica Brown’s 12 points, which contributed to going over time.

Like Lennox, Cox too picked it up in the final quarter with field goals and layups in the paint. Driving to the basket sent her to the free-throw line where Eastern was able to take up extra points.

The Racers lost the lead at the end of the fourth quarter, giving up rebound points to Eastern, which allowed them to tie the game 67-67.

Murray State had four players in the double digits by overtime, and did not let up on the aggressiveness once overtime hit.

“We knew coming in that Murray State was going to be a tough one,” Coach Black said, “That’s why this one was a hurtful loss because their an OVC team that is hot right now.”

Eastern and Murray State went shot for shot in the start of overtime, but the Panthers began to give up foul points and fall back to three point gap 74-71.

With 15 seconds left in the game, Lennox worked the floor passing the ball off to senior guard Alece Shumpert for the buzzard-beating three, in attempt for a second overtime. The Racer’s man-on-man defense defeated any shots being let off.

Eastern fell to two-and-eleven in the OVC losing to Murray State 74-71.

“This game was a fight to the finish. Only come to play for a win,” Coach Black said.

Camelia Nicholson can be reached at 581-2812 or cdnicholson@eiu.edu