Eastern Illinois Tops Jax State Women - Jacksonville State University Athletics

Saturday, January 12

Charleston, IL

4 p.m.

Jax State

0-17 (0-5OVC)

Eastern Illinois

9-7 (3-1OVC)

Team	1	2	F
Jacksonville State	23	30	53
Eastern Illinois	46	30	76

1/12/2013 5:57:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

CHARLESTON, Ill. – The Jacksonville State women's basketball team's struggles continued Saturday with a 76-53 loss to Eastern Illinois in Ohio Valley Conference women's basketball action in Lantz Arena on the EIU campus.

Playing on their home floor for the first time in over a month after seven games away from Charleston, Ill., the Panthers familiarized themselves with the goals pretty quickly in the first half. EIU (9-7, 3-1 OVC) raced out to a double digit lead by the 16:40 mark of the opening half at 12-2 and eventually took a 28-4 lead with 11:49 to play in the half. JSU's (0-17, 0-5 OVC) first basket of the contest was not registered until the 15:09 mark of the half as senior Danielle Vaughn scored two of her nine first half points. Vaughn would finish with 11 points off the bench. It was her fist double figure scoring game of the season and her 40th of her Gamecock career.

EIU took its largest lead of 27 points at 43-16 with just over two minutes left in the first half. The Panthers would take a 46-23 lead into the halftime break after shooting 17-of-38 from the field (44.7 percent). Sabrina Oroszova turned in ten of her 14 points to lead EIU in the half. Oroszova shared team rebounding honors with Morgan Palombizio as each pulled down eight boards. Jax State was limited to 7-of-34 shooting in the first half.

The Panthers pushed the deficit out to as many as 29 points at the 15-minute mark of the second half, but cooled off shooting as they hit just eight baskets in the final period and turned in a 35 percent shooting effort for the contest. JSU finished the affair shooting just 29 percent from the field.

Sophomore Marikate Gardler continued her stellar play in conference games as she bagged a game-high 16 points in 33 minutes of action. It marked her third consecutive game in double figures in the scoring column. The Springfield, Pa.-native scored a career high 22 points last Saturday against Tennessee State and added ten points in the Belmont contest. Gardler pushed her string of made free throws to 14 straight before missing late in the contest.

Sophomore Candace Morton had her best scoring performance of the season with 11 points and a team-best seven rebounds, which matches her season high as well. Freshman Destany McLin added six points in the second half.

The Gamecocks conclude the road trip through the state of Illinois with a visit to Edwardsville, Ill. On Monday evening against the Cougars of SIU Edwardsville. SIUE dropped a 66-56 decision to Tennessee Tech on Saturday. Tip off between JSU and SIUE is set for 7 p.m. and will be available on the Gamecock Sports Network and the OVC Digital Network.