A 28-4 run in the third quarter, capped off by a half-court buzzer beater, sealed the game for North Dakota State.
EIU started slow as NDSU took a 6-0 lead after neither team scored for the first 2:30. Junior guard Ava Stoller said that the team did not play with enough toughness.
“We got punched in the mouth,” Stoller said.
The Bison held the lead for the entire game as NDSU beat EIU 83-55 on Thursday at Groniger Arena.
EIU got within 10 points in the first minutes of the third. They didn’t get within 30 again until the last seconds of the game.
The Bison extended their winning streak to six games with the win.
Junior forward Avery Koenen led the scoring with 22 points. She averages 17.8 points a game.
Koenen also recorded 16 rebounds. She had half as many rebounds as EIU got as a team all game.
Junior forward Miriley Simon took her first three-point attempts of the season, and she drained her first two. The Bison bench went crazy as she drained the shots. Simon would finish with 8 points and 3 rebounds.
Junior guard Clara Glad led the scoring for the Panthers with 16 points. Seven of those points came from free throws.
EIU had not missed a free throw in two games until senior guard Tiny Lewis missed one early in the second quarter.
The defense for the Panthers just could not stop NDSU’s runs. Stoller said the team will have to make changes going forward.
EIU women’s basketball redshirt sophomore center Abbie Boutilier throws the ball to her teammate while North Dakota State junior forward Avery Koenen attempts to steal the ball during Eastern’s loss to NDSU 83-55 in Groniger Arena on Thursday. (Olivia Clardy)
“I think they not only played with a lot more toughness, but we didn’t play with pride,” Stoller said. “And I think stuff like that comes down to the little things for us that we didn’t do. So at this point really there’s no excuses.”
It wasn’t all bad vibes, as Stoller joked that Glad needs to take more shots. Glad attempted 10 shots this game, which is most all season, and recorded a season and career high in points.
“I think we all have to know individually what we need to do to help this team win,” Glad said. “And we got to look at [conference play] as a new season honestly and we’re going to start fresh.”
Eastern had five players out due to injury and added another one as redshirt freshman Olivia Thostenson was carried out of the locker room after the game. However, Stoller said that the team has to be better, and they have to buy into what head coach Marqus McGlothan tells them.
McGlothan declined to comment on the game.
This was EIU’s first game back home after a 38-day, eight game road trip.
The Panthers go right back on the road to Butler as they play their last non-conference game of the year on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Patrick Schmitz can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].