Eastern head coach Jay Spoonhour knows how much his players obsess about internal apprehensions once they trot out on to the court. Sometimes these thoughts, as he sees it, can have apparent implications pertaining to their playmaking.

“A lot of guys playing in their ninth ever game, some guys thinking they need to score to stay on the floor, there is lots of stuff going on out there in their head,” Spoonhour said.

In any case, these active minds fostered an active scoring night, with the Panthers clobbering Green Bay 93-80 Saturday.

It was a game cleaved in two. Ball security was problematic for the Panthers in both halves, but Green Bay’s ability to exploit Eastern’s mismanagement and inconsistencies with the basketball, which had been absent from the start, surfaced in the final 20 minutes. Despite giving up fewer turnovers than the Panthers, they could not escape an entire half of missed opportunities. Eastern was plagued with 10 turnovers in the first half alone, all while Green Bay shot just 32 percent from the floor during that interval of the game.

Spoonhour pointed to the discomforts of building up a substantial lead, on what he deemed to be a respectable opponent no less, in the first half of Saturday’s win as a reasonable justification for Green Bay’s revival throughout the second.

He made adjustments to the rotation accordingly.

“It’s just the mentality of being ahead and not wanting to be on your heels,” Spoonhour said. “I took Marvin (Johnson) and Deang (Deang) out early because they both turned the ball over, dribbling too fast. But when I took them out I told them you can’t play on your heels either. So you can’t go too fast and you can’t play on your heels, you have to make the right play.”

Cody Schwartz and JayQuan McCloud commanded the offensive renaissance after halftime for the Phoenix, made possible through their effectiveness at punishing the Panthers inside and out. The pair did no favors in the first half, though, going a combined 1-of-7.

This duo singlehandedly mounted a 9-0 run at the beginning of the second half, a harbinger of what would be a much more contested period in the game, with Schwartz also providing some insurance on the defensive end to propel the Phoenix.

But Eastern would keep its distance, knocking down 60 percent of its shots for the game. At the conclusion of scoring drives, the Eastern guards frequently connected with George Dixon on a series of back cuts.

When the ball ricocheted off the basket, or otherwise took an unexpected bounce off the hands of a Green Bay post player, Dixon was in position for a bevy of put backs and tip ins.

“I have always been taught to always play tough 24, eight,” Dixon said. “If I take one offensive play off or one defensive play off, that’s a negative point for us. So I just feel like I need to help my team out and do whatever I can to be the best me and get a win for the team.”

Placing his hand on his head, mouth agape, in disbelief over Dixon being called for his fourth foul, Eastern head coach Jay Spoonhour looked on as one of his top scorers was in foul trouble with less than four minutes left.

In the final minutes of the second half, the Phoenix kept pushing forward and vying, ever so persistently, to lessen the sting of a game they trailed nearly the entire way.

However, they never got closer than 11 points after halftime. Overall, from what he saw, Spoonhour could do nothing but extoll his team, notwithstanding the turnovers, for eroding the talents of a team like Green bay to the degree they did.

“I think it was pretty predictable what was going to happen in that second half,” Spoonhour said. “You are just never in the position where you’re have a big lead on a good team. It happens sometimes, but not very often.”

Tom O’Connor can be reached at 581-2812 or troconnor@eiu.edu.