Eastern women’s basketball used a layup by sophomore guard Lalani Ellis to put Eastern on top for good, 51-49 against the University of Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles on Saturday afternoon at Groniger Arena. 

Ellis did not have the best game, finishing with eight points, however she scored three of those in the biggest moments of the game. 

With 33 seconds left Eastern (13-6, 10-0) got the ball. Junior guard Tiny Lewis held the ball until there were 12 seconds left. Lewis passed the ball to Ellis on the left side who drove and got fouled while she made the layup. 

Ellis said that the play was drawn up for her by head coach Marqus McGlothan even though she missed two free throws just seconds earlier. 

“I mean, I missed the two free throws I had before that. So, once we huddled up as a team, I was like, ‘my fault on that. I’m going to get it back for us,’” Ellis said. “[McGlothan] drew the play for me, and I focused up, made the basket, and hit the free throw too.” 

Both teams started out slow with the defenses ruling in the first quarter. Southern Indiana (15-6, 7-3) was leading 10-8 at the end of the first quarter.  

Eastern started the second quarter on an 8-0 run and did not look back. The Panthers would lead for almost the rest of the game except for one moment in the third quarter and near the end of the game. 

In the third quarter, Southern Indiana’s offense opened up when senior guard Vanessa Shafford was able to score 13 of her 15 points. 

McGlothan said the game plan fell apart in the third quarter.  

“We didn’t stick to our game plan in the third,” McGlothan said. “So, we got happy with our offense and was making runs. Then defense, we kind of just forgot about our game plan and we weren’t as disciplined as we should have been.” 

Eastern stayed on top heading into the fourth behind senior forward Macy McGlone’s 10 points. She finished the game with a double-double, totaling 22 points and 16 rebounds. 

McGlone fouled out with three minutes left in the game. She said she was frustrated to not be out there, but had trust in her teammates. 

“Obviously I was just a little frustrated because I want to be in at the end of the game,” McGlone said. “But I was just like trying to, you know, put my trust in my teammates because I know that they’re all really great. So, I knew that they could pull it away.” 

With Southern Indiana being the favorites to win, McGlothan said that the team felt disrespected by that and went into this game with a little more motivation. 

Eastern has now won 10 games in a row and all 10 Ohio Valley Conference games so far. This is the halfway mark of conference play with 10 more games left in the season before the OVC tournament. The Panthers will now play every team again. 

McGlothan said that the team is happy to be at 10 wins, but the record now starts over with the upcoming games. 

“Now we’re 10-0, but like I told them, that’s good in the first stretch, but now we’re really 0-0 going into the second round of conference [play],” McGlothan said. “It’s a lot harder to beat somebody twice than it is to beat them one time.”

Eastern now goes on a four-game road stretch that starts Thursday against Western Illinois in Macomb at 5 p.m. 

Patrick Schmitz can be reached at 581-2812 or at pfschmitz@eiu.edu.