By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
CHARLESTON, Ill. – With the Tennessee Tech women's basketball team trailing 57-52 with just over four minutes to play, the Golden Eagles weren't worried. After all, they had already overcome that deficit already in the contest.
Jada Guinn turned it up down the stretch, scoring eight points in the final 10 minutes, including 4-for-4 from the free-throw line, as well as three rebounds, an assist, a steal and a block as she helped guide the Golden Eagles back to a thrilling 66-61 victory over Eastern Illinois on Saturday.
With that, next week's Ohio Valley Conference tournament in Evansville is set. Tech (19-9, 13-5 OVC), as the No. 3-seed, will face the winner of SIUE/Tennessee State on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. The winner of that game will face No. 2-seed Eastern Illinois on Friday.
Guinn finished the game with 22 points on a 9-for-14 shooting day and narrowly missed a double-double with nine rebounds. She also had three assists, a steal and two blocks.
Anna Walker, who was missing from the Tech lineup in the meeting back in January, checked in with 11 points on 5-for-9 shooting, while pulling down eight boards and blocking three shots. Peyton Carter, starting for the second straight game, had 10 points on 3-for-7 from the floor with two 3-pointers, three rebounds and an assist.
The Golden Eagles nearly outdid the Panthers (21-7, 13-4 OVC) in every category – outshooting 43.3 percent to 38.2, outrebounding 37 to 32, stealing six to five and blocking seven to two. Tech even scored more points on turnovers and outscored EIU in the paint 36-to-24.
One of the things EIU held the advantage on, however, was at the free-throw line, drawing 20 Tech fouls and shooting 15-for-19 at the charity stripe. The Golden Eagles were 9-for-14.
Macy McGlone led the Panthers with 15 points, while Lariah Washington had 13 points.
It was a back-and-forth affair through most of the contest as Tech took a 15-10 lead after the first quarter, then EIU outscored the Golden Eagles 17-14 as Tech led 29-27 at the intermission. Both teams scored 17 points in the third quarter, but a 12-0 run for the Golden Eagles overlapped the end of the third and the start of the fourth quarter as the Panthers went scoreless for almost six minutes.
With the run giving Tech a 50-44 lead, EIU charged back to knot the game at 52 with 6:26 remaining. Washington put the Panthers back up and Eastern collected a 9-0 run to go up 57-52. Ansley Hall and Carter had two big buckets to get back within one at 57-56 with 3:25 remaining in the contest.
Taris Thornton hit a pair of free throws to put the Panthers back up by three. Back on the other side of the court, a scramble for the loose ball gave the ball back to the Golden Eagles and Reghan Grimes was there for a layup to put Tech back within one at 59-58 and 1:56 remaining.
With 91 seconds left, Guinn hit a jumper to retake the lead, but EIU was back on top after McGlone hit two charity tosses. Tech retook the lead one last time as Guinn drilled a jumper with 38.7 seconds remaining.
On the other side, the Panthers missed the shot and Guinn came down with the board. It was an extended game of keep-away as Tech moved the ball into its offensive zone before a foul was called with 16 seconds remaining.
Carter was fouled again with 13.3 seconds left and she hit both tosses to extend the lead back out by three at 64-61. Miah Monahan put up a potential game-tying shot in the corner with five seconds left, but the ball missed and Guinn came down with the carom. Guinn was fouled once more, hitting both free shots to ice the game.
Photo | Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
