File Photo (Alycia Rockey | The Daily Eastern News)

Women's Basketball: Panthers knock off Southern Methodist at home

By: Scott Richey/Sports Editor

Posted: 11/21/08

Updated 3:50 p.m. Nov. 24

Southern Methodist's chances didn't look good down 60-57 with less than three seconds remaining in Monday afternoon's game at Lantz Arena

Eastern senior forward Rachel Galligan had just blocked SMU junior guard Jillian Samuels' 3-point attempt out of bounds. The Mustangs had one more chance to attempt to tie the game.

Samuels passed the ball in from out of bounds and immediately got it back before hoisting up a deep shot from behind the arc. Samuels' long-range attempt fell smoothly through the net as time expired.

"You credit the Samuels kid," Eastern head coach Brady Sallee said. "She hit a big shot. You credit a great program like (SMU head coach Rhonda Rompola) runs down there. They knew what to do in that situation."

The Panthers held on, however, for a 71-65 overtime win against last year's Conference-USA winner. Eastern outscored the Mustangs 11-5 in the extra five minutes behind 6-of-8 free throw shooting, a 3-pointer by senior guard Megan Edwards and an up-and-under post move for an tough basket by Galligan.

"Honestly I was a little bit nervous because we had kind of controlled the game and played pretty well," Sallee said. "We probably should have won it in regulation. I didn't know how we would react to that - feeling like we had a big win under our belts and let it slip away."

Eastern responded with a win, and it was Edwards who led the Panthers with 19 points on 5-of-12 shooting - all from behind the arc. She had five rebounds, four assists and made all four of her free throws.

Two of those free throws didn't come easily. SMU junior forward Delisha Wills body checked Edwards into the announcers' table with just more than six minutes remaining in the second half. Edwards flew sideways into the table hitting her knee. She took several moments to steady herself and then calmly made both free throws.

"Megan Edwards is a warrior," Sallee said. "She may not be the biggest, she might not be the fastest, the tallest, the anything-est, but she is tough. I wouldn't trade her for anybody out there. I don't know if she could really breathe. I don't know if she could feel her leg at that point, but she stepped up and hit two big shots."

The Panthers needed Edwards, and senior guard Ellen Canale's, production because of the tight defense in the paint on Galligan. The Mustangs' zone defense frequently collapsed on Galligan inside, and the Bloomington native had to fight through a near constant double team.

"They did a good job of defending the inside, but we did a good job of shooting on the outside," Galligan said. "That's how we play basketball. If it's not working inside were going to kick it out."

Sallee said it was important that the Panthers got SMU out of its zone defense after making adjustments to the way they attacked it.

"They played probably more zone than we've seen in a year's time," he said. We weren't as good as we needed to be against it. If they would have stayed in the zone the rest of the game, it would have been tough for us to win. Once we got them in the man (defense), we could go back to attacking them inside and playing from inside-out like we usually do."

The Panthers shot just 33 percent for the game but shot 44 percent from behind the arc.

"That's something that we have to be good at because we know people are going to do that to Rachel and (junior forward Maggie Kloak)," Canale said. "It's our responsibility to hit the shot that they fan out to us. If it goes in, it goes in, but if it doesn't you crash the boards like a bat out of hell."

Galligan, who entered Monday's game as the Panthers' leading scorer, shot just 3-of-11 from the field, but finished the game with 11 points and 10 rebounds for her second double-double of the season. The first came in the Panthers' season-opening win against Miami (Ohio).

Canale found herself on the bench for the majority of the first half after picking up two quick fouls but missed just one shot en route to a nine point, five rebound game. The Canton, Mich., native played a large portion of the second half with four fouls but did not foul out of the game.

"I'm no stranger to a couple of fouls," Canale said. "Late in the game I tried to stay disciplined. I just tried to limit (stupid mistakes) as much as possible, block my girl out and play defense."

The Panthers will return to action on Friday at 4 p.m. against Savannah State in the Courtyard Marriott Florence Thanksgiving Classic in Cincinnati, Ohio.