The Panthers were able to pull out a 68-62 win against the Lindenwood University Lions and put themselves in sole possession of second place in the Ohio Valley Conference.
Eastern had a slow start at first going down 6-0, but a 19-6 run after that would give them a 19-12 lead going into the second where they would extend it to 38-24.
In the first half, Eastern had 11 turnovers including seven in the first quarter. They would end with 24, which is their second-highest of the season. Lindenwood would score 25 of their 62 points from turnovers.
“We turned it over which we didn’t get our defense set and for the most part in that game when we got our defense set, we got stops, but the turnovers obviously something we got to address and get better at,” head coach Matt Bollant said.”
Lindenwood would come out hot to start the third quarter with a 15-2 run to bring the game within three points.
“I just think we just came out slow in the third quarter,” junior guard Miah Monahan said. “We’ve been doing that the last couple of games and every single time at halftime we’re like, ‘Okay it’s the first three minutes that matter the most.’ Obviously, Lindenwood was down at half, so you always have that edge to come out, but we just have to learn from that and be better just because in big moments it’s going to matter in the end.”
Eastern would outrebound Lindenwood 49 to 23 and 49 rebounds is their second most for the season. The Panthers also had 22 offensive rebounds which is their most this season.
“I think it was big for us because especially on offense I think we had a lot of offensive rebounds and it gave us, I mean we talked about it in the locker room, we missed a lot of layups so when you do that, you’re working on them,” junior forward Macy McGlone said.
McGlone had 14 rebounds, the most in the game.
Bollant said that rebounding was an area in which they felt they would be able to beat Lindenwood in
“22 offensive [rebounds] and Macy had eight and I think that [Sydney-James Desroches] really gave us a lift, she had four offensive rebounds and Taris had two as well. We thought that was an area that we could, we’re a good rebounding team and we said, ‘Hey this is a team that we can outrebound, go hard to the boards,’ and I felt like we did that.”
With losses from Morehead State University and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Eastern is now in second place by themselves with four games left before the OVC tournament.
“I mean after we lost three in a row, we had some work to do,” Bollant said. “We still got a really tough four-game stretch, three of the four are on the road against good teams, but it feels really good to claw our way back and get back to second place.”
Luther Yoder can be reached at 581-2812 or at densportsdesk@gmail.com.
