Elsah, Ill. - Tonight the Principia College women's basketball team faced the Golden Eagles of Spalding University in their 1st conference match-up of the season.  The game got off to a fast-paced start, with the Panthers clearly suffering from some nerves, forcing the Principia squad to miss 4 lay-ups on consecutive possessions.  It was Spalding who drew first blood, and quickly the Panthers found themselves down 8-0 before freshman forward Rachel Perea found the bottom of the net.  These miscues coupled with some unfortunate turnovers determined the fate of the Panthers really before they had begun, and Principia was never able to truly take control of their game.  Perea managed to keep the Panthers on the board with aggressive moves to the basket and taking points from the charity stripe, going 9-10 for the game.  Actually the whole Panther squad shot well from the free throw line, shooting 15-18 on the night.  But unfortunately this solid shooting did not translate into field goal conversion.  Perea was the only Panther in double figures with 15 points, to which she added 10 rebounds.  Principia did get a spark from senior Hayley Cooke and Isabella Perea who came off the bench and brought some energy to the court, but in the end the Panthers found themselves on the wrong side of a 40+ point victory.

Overall, it was not a good night of basketball for the Lady Panther squad, but improvement has still been made and Principia will be looking to get back on track with their conference schedule this Saturday against MacMurray College.  The game will be played at home and tip-off is scheduled for 1:00 PM.