The 2024–25 Eastern Illinois Panthers women's basketball team represented Eastern Illinois University during the 2024–25 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Panthers, who were led by interim head coach Marqus McGlothan, played their home games at Groniger Arena in Charleston, Illinois, as members of the Ohio Valley Conference.
Previous season The Panthers finished the 2023–24 season 15–18, 11–7 in OVC play, to finish in a three-way tie for second place. They would defeat Tennessee State, before falling to top-seeded and eventual tournament champions Southern Indiana in the semifinals of the OVC tournament.
On May 20, 2024, head coach Matt Bollant announced that he would be leaving the program after seven seasons, in order to retake the head coaching position at Bryan College, a position he held from 2002 to 2007, with associate head coach Marqus McGlothan being named the interim head coach for the 2024–25 season.
Preseason On October 16, 2024, the OVC released their preseason coaches poll. Eastern Illinois was picked to finish third in the OVC regular season.
Preseason rankings OVC preseason pollPredicted finishTeamVotes (1st place) 1 Southern Indiana 200 (20) 2 UT Martin 180 (2) 3 Eastern Illinois 145 4 Tennessee Tech 140 5 Little Rock 135 6 Western Illinois 119 7 Lindenwood 81 T-8 SIU Edwardsville 61 Morehead State 10 Tennessee State 59 11 Southeast Missouri State 29
Source:
Players to Watch Each OVC team selected two "Players to Watch" for their team. Players to WatchPlayerPositionYearMacy McGloneForwardSeniorLalani EllisGuardSophomore Source:
Roster
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=""| Exhibition
!colspan=12 style=""| Non-conference regular season
!colspan=12 style=""| OVC regular season
!colspan=12 style=""|
Sources:
References