COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Dominique Sims scored a career-high 21 points and Maggie Kloak put together a double-double performance, leading Eastern Illinois women's basketball to its eighth consecutive victory, 80-59, at Tennessee Tech Thursday evening.

The Panthers (13-8, 9-1 OVC) have won nine straight games against Tech (8-12, 3-7 OVC), their longest win streak ever against an OVC opponent. The current eight-game overall win streak is one shy of a program record. Eastern can put the finishing touches on an undefeated month of January with a victory Saturday at Jacksonville State.

Kloak finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds, her third career double-double. Sims was 6-of-9 from the field. Mariah King scored in double figures for the second game in a row, finishing with 12 points. Kelsey Wyss added 10.

“One of the best things about tonight's win was the balance we played with; seeing Kelsey step up and play the way she did,” EIU head coach Brady Sallee said. “Mariah King had a really good game for us again. We're getting some play off our bench right now and Dominique is playing at a very high level. I thought she played a very efficient and smart game tonight.”

 

Kloak (9-of-12), Sims (8-of-10) and King (6-of-6) teamed up to make 23-of-28 at the free throw line, as EIU outscored Tech 30-12 at charity stripe.

 

Ta'Kenya Nixon put together another impressive all-around effort, recording eight points, eight rebounds and 10 assists. It was her second double-figure assist effort in the last three games.

 

Tacarra Hayes led Tech with 19 points but was 5-of-15 from the field. The conference leader in free throws made and attempted did make 9-of-13 at the charity stripe.

“We had to make [Hayes] earn every single one [of her points],” Sallee said. “We understood she was going to [score], but we had to make her earn [the points]. She had to take a lot of shots and I think she got a lot of them in the second half when the game was out of reach. What happened was you saw a lot of their players standing around watching her play maybe instead of getting involved in things. We made them a little bit one dimensional tonight and that was big for us.”

Eastern collected a season-high 54 rebounds, registering 50-plus boards for the third consecutive game.

 

The Panthers took the lead for good with a 12-0 run just after the midpoint of the first half. The surge was opened and capped by 3-pointers from Ashley Thomas and Wyss, respectively.

 

Eastern didn't score from the field for the first six minutes of the second half and Tech got as close as seven down. But EIU responded with 7-0 spurt and led by double figures the rest of the game.

 

King and Wyss did the majority of their scoring in the first half, teaming up for 18 of EIU's 43 points in the opening 20 minutes. That helped compensate for Nixon's scoreless first half. The point guard did assist on eight of the Panthers' 13 first-half field goals.

 

Eastern jumped out to an early 10-4 advantage with four and half minutes gone by. But TTU answered with a 9-1 run, taking its first lead. The lead then changed hands four times until EIU went ahead for good with the 12-0 run.

 

The Golden Eagles went four minutes without a field goal in the second half after cutting the EIU lead to single digits. Eastern outscored TTU 11-4 during that stretch. Nixon finally connected on a field goal when she converted on a layup that turned out to be a three-point play at the 11:47 mark.

 

Nixon picked up her fourth foul moments later and went to the bench. Sims did the majority of the scoring for the Panthers over the next seven minutes, accounting for 10 of EIU's 16 points.

 

Eastern was able to get Hayes into first-half foul trouble, sending her to the bench with three fouls at the 3:20 mark. She also did not start the second half.

 

The Panthers have posted nine of their 12 all-time victories against Tech during the current series win streak.

Saturday's game at Jacksonville State is slated for a 2 p.m. tipoff. Eastern will be in search of its seventh straight victory against JSU.

More Info: Contact Ben Turner, Asst. SID