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Game Notes

RICHMOND, Ky. – Eastern Kentucky’s women’s basketball team will host Eastern Illinois on Saturday at McBrayer Arena. The game, sponsored by Free Enterprise, is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.

The live radio broadcast of the game is available in the Richmond area on WEKY 1340 AM, and can be heard worldwide on EKUSports.com.

Saturday’s game will be the 28th meeting between Eastern Kentucky and Eastern Illinois. Eastern Kentucky leads the all-time series 14-13, but has lost seven straight to the Panthers.

In EKU’s last game, the Lady Colonels (6-17, 3-11 OVC) lost to Southeast Missouri, 64-57, on Thursday. Freshman Marie Carpenter led Eastern with a career-best 29 points. Eastern battled back from a 12-point first half deficit to get within in one early in the second half, but never got over the hump.

When Eastern Illinois and Eastern Kentucky met earlier this season in Charleston, EIU won 70-61. Reese Bass led the Lady Colonels with 16 points and Nadia Mossong finished with a double-double, 10 points and 13 rebounds. Sydney Mitchell and Ta’Kenya Nixon each scored 15 points for the Panthers.

Eastern Kentucky led by two at the break, but the Panthers began the second half with an 11-2 run, turning their deficit into a seven-point lead, 44-37. The Lady Colonels made a late 11-1 run to get within two but scored only one point over the final 2:47. Eastern Kentucky committed only 15 turnovers, but Eastern Illinois turned those turnovers into 24 points. The Lady Colonels scored just 10 points off EIU’s 10 turnovers.

Eastern Illinois enters the game 13-11 overall and 8-5 in Ohio Valley Conference play. After beating EKU on Jan. 13, the Panthers lost four straight, but EIU rebounded and is on a four-game winning streak now.

Nixon scored 25 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and sophomore forward Mariah King scored 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds to help the Panthers to an 80-75 victory at Morehead State on Thursday. EIU shot 49 percent from the field, 30 percent from three-point range and 86 percent from the free throw line. Eastern Illinois turned the ball over 19 times but out-rebounded MSU by 20 and out-scored the Eagles in the paint 44-16.

Nixon leads the team in scoring (16.7 ppg), rebounding (6.7 rpg), assists (5.1 apg), steals (1.8 spg) and field goal percentage (48.4 percent). She also ranks among the top-10 in the OVC in each of those categories. The 6-foot-2 King is the team’s second leading scorer (12.4 ppg). Mitchell, a 6-foot-1 sophomore forward, contributes 9.1 points and 6.3 rebounds per contest.

As a team, Eastern Illinois ranks among the top-3 in the OVC in scoring, scoring defense, scoring margin, field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage defense, free throw percentage, rebounding margin, assists and turnover margin.