Things started going downhill for the Panthers before the game even started. Southeast Missouri had a 1-0 lead before the clock started.

The Lantz Arena scoreboard did not work, resulting in a technical foul for the Panthers and free throws awarded for the Redhawks.

Everything just got worse after that.

The Eastern women’s basketball team gave up 100 points for the first time since 2014 in the 107-65 loss to the Southeast Missouri Redhawks Saturday afternoon.

The Panther’s postseason chances took a major hit with the loss; they fall to 8-17 on the season with a 4-9 record in Ohio Valley Conference play. Eastern is now last in the OVC and two games behind the eighth seed. Southeast Missouri improves to 12-14 on the year with a 6-7 record in conference play. Eastern has now lost two straight games and they have tough matchups ahead with just three games remaining in the season.

The Redhawks were able to reach 100 points in the game due to their three point shooting. They went 17-32 from beyond the arc in the game led by Hannah Noe who made nine. Noe was the game’s leading scorer finishing with 29 points. Three Panther’s reached double figures on Saturday led by junior Grace Lennox who had 15 points along with six assists and four steals. Sophomore Halle Stull (13) and senior Erica Brown (10) were the other Panther’s to reach double digits.

Eastern was also hurt in the rebounding battle, as they were outrebounded 39-22. Stull had the most rebounds for the Panthers finishing with five. Southeast Missouri had three players with six rebounds and two players had five. Noe, Bri Mitchell (15), Deja Jones (15) and Kaley Leyhue (11) all finished with double digits on Saturday. Jones was a perfect 7-7 from the field in the 14 minutes she played and added a free throw.

Eastern stuck with Southeast Missouri for the first five minutes of the first quarter, but the Redhawk’s went on a 10-0 run to pull away early and never looked back. It was 25-14 after the first quarter and Southeast Missouri went 5-9 from beyond the arc. The second quarter was much of the same with the Redhawk’s scoring the first eight points. The lead reached up to 22 points for the Redhawk’s in the second period and they took a 55-37 lead into the half.

The third quarter featured another run for Southeast Missouri as the lead reached 30 with a 12-2 run. The Redhawk’s led 82-54 heading into the fourth quarter. A 17-3 run in the fourth quarter helped Southeast Missouri reach the 100-point mark, they shot 71 percent from the field in the final quarter. Eastern shot 33 percent in the final quarter.

Eastern shot 48 percent from the field in the game and 37 percent from beyond the arc in the game. Southeast Missouri finished shooting 59 percent from the field and 53 percent from the three-point line.

The Panther’s will host Murray State on Wednesday for the last game at Lantz Arena this season. The Panther’s are not mathematically out of the postseason race, but they cannot afford to lose another game.

Mark Shanahan can be reached at 581-2812 or mmshanahan@eiu.edu