BOX SCORE

CHARLESTON, Ill. – Senior Samantha Heck became the 18th player in University of Evansville women’s basketball history to score 1,000 career points and fellow senior Chelsea Falkenstein recorded a career-high 15 rebounds, but a late rally by Eastern Illinois lifted the Panthers to a 70-57 victory over the Purple Aces Tuesday night at Lantz Arena in Charleston, Ill.
 
Senior Meagan Collins led three Evansville (2-6) players in double figures with 16 points, while Heck added 15 and redshirt sophomore Khristian Hart dropped in 10.
 
The game was closely contested throughout much of the contest, until Eastern Illinois (3-4) produced a late run and held UE to a 26.9 percent shooting percentage in the second half that included a seven-minute scoring drought by the Aces.
 
Heck notched her 1,000th-career point with Evansville’s first basket of the game, but Eastern Illinois led 6-4 at the first media timeout in a half that featured nine ties and 14 lead changes.
 
The Panthers opened a 20-17 lead on a basket by Sydney Mitchell after holding Evansville without a point for over five minutes.  However, the Aces were able to respond and took a 24-23 lead on a pair of three-pointers by Collins and freshman Laura Friday.
 
UE took its largest lead of the first half at 29-26 on a basket by Falkenstein, before Ta’Keyna Nixon scored six of Eastern Illinois’ final eight points of the first half to give the Panthers a 34-32 lead with 35 seconds remaining.
 
Hart knotted the score, 34-34, with a short jumper in the final seconds of the half and the score remained tied heading into the break, as the Aces shot 50 percent the field in the first 20 minutes (14-for-28).
 
Evansville came out of the locker room and went on a 9-2 run to open up a 43-36 advantage at the first media timeout of the second half, but the Panthers quickly countered with back-to-back buckets with 14:00 to play to trim the UE advantage to 43:40.
 
The Panthers soon began to settle into an offensive rhythm and used outside shooting to spark a 28-6 run that ultimately put the game out of reach for Evansville.
 
A deep triple by Katlyn Payne gave EIU its first lead of the second half at 47-46 and another three-pointer at the top of the arc by Sabina Oroszova forced a UE timeout at the 8:25 mark with the score 55-48 in favor of Eastern Illinois.
 
Mariah King scored on a backdoor layup to give the Panthers their largest lead of the night at 70-52 just under seven minutes later, until a Collins three ended Evansville’s scoring drought with 1:21 remaining in the contest.
 
Nixon led all scorers with 17 points and posted a double-double for EIU by pulling down 11 rebounds.  Three other Eastern Illinois players scored in double figures as King finished with 11 points and Jordyne Crunk and Sydney Mitchell each added 10.
 
After going just 2-for-14 behind the arc in the first half, the Panthers shot 6-for-14 from long distance in the second half and connected on 14 of their 30 shots from the field over the final 20 minutes. 
 
Eastern Illinois also prevailed on the glass, outrebounding the Aces, 44-31, and scored 13 second chance points in 13 offensive boards. 
 
Evansville will look to end its five-game losing skid Sunday, Dec. 9 at 1 p.m. when it hosts non-conference foe St. Louis at the Ford Center.