Things really weren’t shaping up for Marc Mitchell and his Indiana State women’s basketball team.
Not even two minutes into a Friday evening matchup against Eastern, the first-year head coach had to call a timeout; Eastern’s senior guard Kiyley Flowers had just scored eight points in the last 41 seconds.
“She literally had like three buckets in a row,” senior forward Macy McGlone said in between laughs. “I was like, ‘This is great, I can just stand back here and watch.’”
Flowers’ run started off a rebound from a missed free throw attempt, courtesy of Eastern’s redshirt sophomore forward Sydney-James Desroches. Flowers grabbed the rebound and passed it away from a few encroaching Sycamores.
The ball moved around a bit until nine seconds after her rebound, it found its way to Flowers again. She was just beyond the arc where she shot and made a three pointer.
Indiana State got the ball back, and seven seconds after Flowers’ three pointer, Sycamore sophomore guard Queen Ruffin tried to hit a layup. McGlone blocked it and took the rebound.
Eight seconds after that, the ball found Flowers’ yet again, and she hit another three pointer.
Indiana State was back on the offense for 16 seconds, but Flowers stole the ball and broke away for a layup. That layup prompted Mitchell’s timeout.
“I said, ‘we’re still sleeping on the bus,’” Mitchell recalled. “So, we gotta do a better job of getting off the bus and getting ready to go.”
And get off the bus they did.
Eastern would go on to win 73-60, but not before the Sycamores mounted a hefty second half comeback.
The first half was an affair entirely in Eastern’s control. The Panthers held a 15-point lead by the end of the second quarter, when the score was 38-23. Yet, Eastern was outscored 37-35 in the second half.
“Well, really it was just the fourth quarter,” Eastern’s head coach Marqus McGlothan said. “With a minute and 53 seconds left in the third, we were up by 26. It’s just what I told them, we tried to give the bench an opportunity to step up, and they didn’t do their job today.”
Players like redshirt freshmen Georgia Cox and Adriana Arroyo tallied a few minutes in the game alongside freshman guard Allana Phillipo.
Coach McGlothan said it was good experience for the bench to have and hopes in “a year or two from now,” they’ll be ready to go.
Indiana State’s coach, Mitchell, produced a different reason for the comeback.
“It wasn’t anything special that we did, or EIU did, it was mindset,” Mitchell said. “If you come out with the right mentality and play with that type of ferocity you get those kind of results. But you do it for 40 minutes though, not 20.”
McGlone, who played for 30 minutes including a portion of the second half, thought there was also a mentality switch.
“Honestly, we had some turnovers, and they got some steam,” McGlone said. “Ultimately, when a team is feeling good, even if they’re down, if they have the energy, it’s really hard to keep ahead. If you have the energy, you’re going to run a little faster, you’re going to jump a little higher.”
McGlone finished the game with 26 points, leading the team. That mark was just shy of her season high 28-point performance against Loyola Chicago two weeks ago. She also led the team in rebounds with seven.
Flowers led the team in steals with four, contributing to the team’s 30 takeaways against Indiana State. Flowers came into the game tied for 5th in the nation in steals, with 29.
“I mean, [the] kid is good you know,” Mitchell said. “But it had nothing to do with EIU and her, it had everything to do with us, taking care of the ball and playing with poise and [keeping it] under control. So, if we take care of the ball and do what we’re supposed to do, it doesn’t matter if she’s first in the nation in steals. If we take care of the ball, it doesn’t matter.”
The win puts Eastern at 3-5 on the season and is the penultimate game before Ohio Valley Conference play.
The Panther’s next game will be on Sunday, Dec. 5 against no. 20 ranked Iowa State.
The OVC season starts on Thursday, Dec. 19 at Southeastern Missouri State University.
Aidan Cusack can be reached at 581-2812 or at atcusack@eiu.edu.
