By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

Western Illinois is sticking to its plan of staying in Evansville for a while.

The Leathernecks are still going in the Ohio Valley Conference women’s basketball tournament, defeating Eastern Illinois 78-75 in Thursday’s quarterfinal at the Ford Center.

Western Illinois (16-15), the seventh seed in the tournament, advanced to play second seed Lindenwood (20-9) in Friday’s 3 p.m. semifinal.

Raegan McCowan’s layup with 15 seconds left gave the Leathernecks a 76-75 lead. Mia Nicastro’s two free throws with three seconds left provided the final margin.

Two games, two wins, and now one of the last four teams left.

“At the end of the day, this team feels a little bit like fate’s on our side, and that’s a powerful feeling,” Western Illinois coach JD Gravina said.

Gravina said after Wednesday’s win over UT-Martin that he felt it was a disappointing season, a point his players brought up after this win.

“We came to this tournament knowing that, and this tournament is kind of our second chance at a new life,” said McCowan. “And so I think that all kind of weighs on us heavily. So every single game just means a little bit more. And I think we’ve all taken that very personally.”

“Going off what Reagan said, it’s nice to have a clean slate here in the postseason tournament, and we’re taking every advantage of it that we can,” said guard Addi Brownfield. “We got a great group of girls who work hard, and it’s nice to finally see some results. And like Coach said, we feel like destiny is on our side, and we’re feeling pretty great right now.”

The Leathernecks trailed 75-74, but had the ball out of a timeout at midcourt with 25 seconds to play. McCowan, who led the Leathernecks with 25 points, was able to get to the basket to score over Eastern Illinois’ Sydney-James Desroches.

Asked what he talked about during the timeout, which included a replay review to see how much time was remaining, Gravina said, “About how to get Raegan the ball, let’s be honest. And I think we got a little bit of a break with that sideline. The officials had to go back to the monitor, and we kind of saw what they were doing, that they were going to step back and double-team Raegan.”

Gravina then had freshman Shelby Bowman take the inbounds pass. Bowman was able to get the ball to McCowan for the game-winner.

“Imagine being a freshman coming in the game at that point, having not played,” Gravina said. “Now she has had some experience this year, but having not played in a couple games in the tournament, to make the right pass when they’re trying to deny it was big. And then it’s just a luxury to have a player like Raegan, who can just go get her own shot.”

The Panthers (18-12), the third seed in the tournament, got the ball at midcourt out of their last timeout and got the ball to OVC player of the year Macy McGlone, who missed a shot inside with five seconds left. Nicastro was fouled on the rebound, and made her free throws to clinch the win.

Nicastro finished with 19 points, 17 in the second half. Brownfield had 15 points and nine rebounds for the Leathernecks. Mallory McDermott had 10.

McGlone had 22 points and 15 rebounds. Desroches had 18.

Photo: WIU’s Addi Brownfield (13) drives to the basket during Thursday’s Ohio Valley Conference quarterfinal against Eastern Illinois. (Photo courtesy of the Ohio Valley Conference)