The Eastern women’s basketball team won five of the six games they played over winter break. The one game they lost was in a close one as they lost by 11 points to Big 10 team Minnesota. 

The Panthers are also currently 4-0 in the Ohio Valley Conference where they are tied for first place with OVC newcomer Little Rock, who they will face Saturday afternoon.

As of Jan. 3, EIU received 24 votes in the weekly CollegeInsider.com mid major top 25 polls, placing them just 8 teams out of the poll. 

They have received votes for the last 7 weeks.

Eastern is at the top of the OVC in many team and individual areas. They have the best scoring offense (70.7 ppg), scoring margin (+7.5), field goal percentage (.442), assist/turnover ratio (1.1) in the league.

Senior guard Lariah Washington leads the OVC with a 19.2 points per game and a .857 free throw percentage, is in fourth for her .492 shooting percentage, is tied for 6th place for her 3.3 assists per game.

Washington’s shooting percentage also lands her at 28th in the nation.

She has won the OVC Player of the Week award three times so far this season.

Sophomore forward Macy McGlone has also been lighting up the stat boards for Eastern as well.

She leads the OVC in offense rebounds (2.7 per game), she is second in the league for blocked shots (1.2 per game), she is also second for her field goal percentage (.514), is third in the OVC for rebounding (6.9 per game), and is 15th in the OVC for her scoring average (10.5 ppg).

Senior forward Morgan Litwiller is currently 28th in the league for scoring (8.5 ppg), 13th in rebounding (5.5 per game) and 11th in the OVC for defensive rebounds per game (4).

Miah Monahan and Lyric Johnson are also among the EIU players in the OVC leaderboards.

Monahan is 23rd in the OVC for her scoring percentage (8.9 ppg), 14th in field goal percentage (.429), 3rd in assists (4.6 per game), 2nd in assist/turnover ratio (1.9), and 12th in 3-point field goal percentage (.314).

Johnson is 18th in the OVC for rebounds per game (4.7).

EIU has a lot of the season left to finish as strong as they have started. As they are in the midst of the OVC season, they will face 7th place SIUE (2-2) at home Thursday evening. The Panthers were set to play the Cougars four times last season but two of the games were postponed.

However, the Panthers were able to come out on top for the other two games. One of the games was close as the Panthers pulled away with the 70-68 win.

The Cougars went on to lose to Morehead State in the semifinal of the 2022 OVC Championship.

Kate Stevens can be reached at 581-2812 or kestevens2@eiu.edu.