The women’s basketball team came into its home opener against the LaGrange College (Ga.) Panthers on Sunday looking to get the year off to a good start.

Emory was 13-12 last year, and looked to get into the win column with its first game of the 2009-10 season. This year’s team entered its opener having lost five seniors from last season’s team. Included in the five was forward/center Lora Turner, who was named the team’s most outstanding player for the 2008-09 season. Also departed is guard Kendall Boyd, who was named the team’s best defensive player.

For Head Coach Christy Thomaskutty, who is entering her seventh season as the Eagles’ head coach, the game was also about helping some players get comfortable in new areas of the game.

“Right now there isn’t a player on the team who does not have a new role. Every one of them has a new role this year,” she said. “So when you talk about one player stepping up or filling in a certain area, that really isn’t the case. It’s really about everyone.”

The Eagles fell behind the Panthers early, and were trailing by a 31-25 score at halftime. A big reason for their deficit was the team’s low shooting percentage. Emory hit just one third of its shots from the field in the first 20 minutes. To make matters worse, the Eagles could not convert their opportunities that were not contested, going just 4-9 from the foul line.

Coming into the second half, the Eagles looked to knock down some more shots early in the period and even the score.

However, the team’s cold streak carried into the second the half and LaGrange’s lead swelled to 15 points at 50-35.

Just when it seemed that the Eagles might go away quietly in their first game of the season, they came storming back with a 10-0 run.

Two successful foul shots by senior forward Mary Smith cut the lead to 50-45 with 7:07 left in the game.

“My kids never quit,” Thomaskutty said. “Even when we dug ourselves a hole of 13 we kept fighting. But we can’t afford to dig holes like that.”

The teams continued to trade baskets and LaGrange held a six-point advantage at the four-minute mark. However, the six points were as close as Emory would get in the game’s final minutes, as an 8-0 LaGrange run put the deficit at 14 for Emory. Time eventually ran out on the Eagles, who lost the game by a final margin of 66-53.

The home-opening loss was the first in five years for the Eagles, who are now 17-5 in home openers all-time.

On the stat sheet, Emory was lead by senior center and co-captain Keenan Whitesides, who finished with 13 points and six rebounds. The 13 points was the second highest scoring output of Whitesides’ collegiate career.

The team’s other co-captain, senior forward Whitney Martin, was right behind Whitesides with 12 points and seven rebounds, which tied for the team lead in “boards.”

The assist leader for the Eagles was sophomore point guard Sally Peterson, who came up with three assists.

For the game, the Eagles shot 29 percent from the field as a team, a total that Thomaskutty knows will be higher in future games this season.

“The shots just didn’t fall for us today,” she said. “We also pressed a little bit emotionally.”

In looking at the game, Thomaskutty saw areas where the Eagles were weak and need to improve on as the season continues.

“What hurt us yesterday was that we gave up 22 rebounds and 15 turnovers,” she said. “That’s 30-plus possessions.”

Emory is looking for its third consecutive winning season, which has not happened since the team had eight consecutive winning seasons from 1992 to 2000 under then-Head Coach Myra Sims.

For the Eagles to be successful this year, Thomaskutty knows that the team must succeed in all facets of the game.

The team will also rely on the three returning seniors to rise as leaders this year among the players. Two of those seniors are the team’s co-captains, Martin and Whitesides. The third is Smith, who will also play a role in the team’s success this season.

“Our seniors need to lead us this year and they’ve been doing a great job of that,” she said.

The Eagles will be back in action today at 7 p.m. when they will travel to take on their provincial rivals, the Oglethorpe University Stormy Petrels.

They will return to the Woodruff P.E. Center Friday to take on Millsaps College at 6 p.m. as part of the Emory Tipoff Classic.

— Contact Dan Ziment.