The foggy picture that is the top four spots in the Ohio Valley Conference will begin to clear up Thursday night as the men’s basketball team welcomes the Morehead State Eagles to Lantz Gymnasium at 7:10 p.m.

The Panthers (16-9, 9-5) are currently tied with Austin Peay for the third seed in the conference tournament and have a big challenge ahead of them in the Eagles. Earlier this year, Eastern was able to steal an 88-85 victory at Morehead thanks to a four-point play by guard Matt Britton with 17 seconds left in the game.

“It seemed like they were more intense,” Britton said of the teams’ previous matchup. “They defended us as well as anybody else in the conference.

“They did a lot of switching and forced us (Henry Domercant, Kyle Hill, Britton) to give up the ball without getting good looks (at the basket),” he said. “They aren’t a team that makes many mistakes, so you have to go out there and beat them.”

The Eagles are led by freshman stand-out Rickey Minard who is tied for ninth in the conference in scoring averaging 17.2 points per game. The forward has been able to handle the pressures of being a marked man, most recently when he scored eight of his thirteen points in overtime to help the Eagles defeat Tennessee-Martin 86-77 on Feb. 17.

“He (Minard) is one of the more athletic kids they have had on their team in a while,” Britton said. “He’s dangerous because he is very good off the dribble and can shoot coming off screens.

“He seemed very mature for a freshman and didn’t seem to force much at all.”

Minard is not the only offensive threat Morehead brings to the table. Junior Kyle Umbarger and sophomore Marquis Sykes are also legitimate threats in the Eagle offense.

Umbarger scored a game-high 26 points the last time these two teams met and Sykes is tied with Britton for the conference lead in assists per game with 6.36 apg.

“Umbarger is not your typical post player,” Eastern head coach Rick Samules said. “Crafty would be the word I would use to describe him. He’s opportunistic on the boards and is very deceptive with the ball around the basket.”

“Sykes is a true point guard,” Britton said. “He runs their offense well but doesn’t look to score as much as I do. But he does a great job finding the open man and I’ve noticed he has been scoring more lately.”

With the top and bottom four teams in the conference virtually set, Eastern will look to use Thursday and Saturday’s game to sharpen up for the tournament.

“Now’s a good time to focus on playing hard,” Samuels said. “We need to not rely on our offense and out scoring opponents so much. It’s important in the stretch run to take time and focus on the little things.”

“We’ve been getting back to the basics (this week in practice),” Britton said. “We slipped a little bit rebounding, defending and cutting (off the ball) so we have really been focusing on those things.”