2024 OVC Women's Basketball Championship - Quarterfinals

3/7/2024 8:00:00 AM

#4 EASTERN ILLINOIS 60, #8 TENNESSEE STATE 48
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Eastern Illinois shot 50 percent from the floor in the second half as the Panthers rallied to pick up a 60-48 win over Tennessee State in the second round of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.

EIU is now 15-17 overall and will play No. 1 seed Southern Indiana in the OVC semifinals on Friday at 1 p.m. at the Ford Center. TSU ends its season at 11-19.

Tennessee State forced 13 first half turnovers by Eastern Illinois as the Lady Tigers held a 28-26 lead at the half. In addition to the turnovers, EIU was cold from the field shooting just 29 percent in the opening 20 minutes.

In the third quarter the Panthers began to feed the ball to OVC Player of the Year Macy McGlone who posted her 26th double-double of the season with 22 points and 12 rebounds,

In the final period it was the play of senior Emily Meidel off the bench that helped spark the Panthers. Meidel hit a 3-pointer from the right corner with 9:41 to play in the game which broke a 44-44 tie and started a crucial 9-0 run by the Panthers. McGlone scored the other six points in the run.

Meidel was big on the glass for EIU during that final quarter of play pulling down six of her career-high 11 rebounds in the stanza. Meidel added four points, a steal and two blocks to her stat line. EIU finished the game with a 51-36 advantage on the glass.

TSU trimmed the margin down to five points with just under five minutes left in the game on a jumper by Saniah Parker. Parker scored ten points, one of two Lady Tigers in double figures.

Meidel knocked down a free throw to make it a six-point game and Taris Thornton helped seal the game with a jumper as part of her nine-point afternoon.

Lyric Cole led TSU with 14 points. Prior to the fourth quarter run by the Panthers, the game had been tied 12 times with seven lead changes.

#3 UT MARTIN 79, #6 TENNESSEE TECH 71
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The University of Tennessee at Martin women's basketball jumped out to a big lead in the Ohio Valley Conference Basketball Championship quarterfinals and never gave it back as the squad opened its tournament appearance with a 79-71 victory over Tennessee Tech.

The No. 3 seeded Skyhawks (15-15) posted their third win of the season against the Golden Eagles – including their second in the past week. UT Martin held a lead as large as 20 points in the first half but No. 6 seeded Tennessee Tech did not go away quietly, ultimately cutting their deficit down to as close as four points, before the higher seed pulled away down the stretch.

The two teams combined to make 29 three-point field goals with UT Martin knocking down 14-of-18 three-point field goal attempts. The Arkansas tandem of Kenley McCarn and Josie Storey each made four of six three-point attempts while McCarn led all scorers with 31 points – tying her previous career-high.

While three-pointers played a big role in the contest, a complete team effort saw four different players reach double figures for the Skyhawks. McCarn paced the team with 31 points while Storey tossed in 14 points to rank second on the team. The squad was rounded out in double figures by Love Mays (13 points) and Lexi Rubel (11 points, five assists) while Anaya Brown tallied seven points and 14 rebounds to just miss out on all five starters reaching double-digits in the scoring column.

Tennessee Tech (16-15) saw its season come to a close despite seeing five players reach double figures in the loss. Although the team made just 36.8 percent of their shot attempts, the squad made the most of their three-point chances where they cashed in 15 trifectas to make things interesting in the second half. Maaliya Owens paced the team with 17 points – five three-pointers – while Peyton Carter (13), Reghan Grimes (13), Cayla Cowart (12) and Anna Walker (11) rounded out a balanced scoring effort.