After trailing by 10 points at halftime, Eastern women’s basketball would go on to win at home at First Mid Court in Lantz Arena on Sunday against Loyola Chicago 83-73.

The Panthers were led by 6-3 sophomore forward Macy McGlone with 23 points.

Eastern struggled in the first half with three-point shots as they only made one of their 11 attempts including 0-5 from three in the second quarter. While Macy McGlone already had 11 of her 21 in the first half alone the Panthers trailed 30-40 against the Ramblers going into halftime.

“One of the things we talked about (at halftime) was, ‘Hey, let’s keep going inside,’” said Eastern women’s coach Matt Bollant. “We had an advantage with Macy. Let’s keep looking there and that’ll open up some of the three-point shots.”

And open up it did.

The Panthers’ offense came alive in the third quarter as they would go on to score 26 points in the quarter almost matching their entire point total in the first half. The third quarter would end on a deep last-second three-point shot from senior forward Morgan Litwiller who buried the shot near the letter “E” in “Eastern Illinois” in the middle of the court.

Eastern’s offense continued with the momentum in the fourth quarter as the Panthers would score an additional 27 points. Sophomore forward Taris Thornton would score all eight of her points in the fourth and senior guard Lariah Washington would score 9 of her 17 points in the fourth as well.

“I knew I had to get going in the second half to help my team in any way I could,” said Washington. Washington leads the way in scoring for the Panthers this year with 82 points so far in four games.

In the second half, Eastern would go 5-8 on three-point shots while posting a field goal percentage of 68.9%. The Panthers would keep up the pressure on the inside as McGlone would tack on 10 more points in the second half as she continued posting up near the basket.

“This past week, I’ve been working on my post moves and posting up better,” said McGlone. “I was doing a better job of getting in front.”

The offensive side of the ball wasn’t the only area where Eastern improved in the second half. Defensively, the Panthers held the Ramblers to 33 points in the second half, seven less than they scored in the first.

A crucial moment on defense came with 3:55 left to go in the fourth quarter where Washington was able to steal the ball near midcourt and charge her way to the basket for a layup giving the Panthers a 10-point lead with less than four minutes to go.

“Our focus on the second half was just getting stops,” said Washington. “Just thinking about that and trying to get more steals to help my teammates out. Our focus was defense in the second half for sure.”

The win improves the Panthers to 4-0 on the season. This is the first time in school history that the Panthers have started 4-0 in back-to-back seasons.

“We said at the beginning of the year that we just want to have a really good year,” said Washington. “Seeing it all come together in the beginning is really good, so we just want to keep pushing and get more wins.”

Up next for the Panthers, they head to Chicago to take on Chicago state on Tuesday with tipoff at 7:00 p.m. The Panthers then return home Monday, Nov 28 to host Wright State at 6:00 p.m.

Nick Bays can be reached at 581-2812 or ntbays@eiu.edu