By Anthony Braviere

Staff writer

What a difference a month and some home cooking makes. Eastern found out Thursday night when they manhandled a team that took them to the limits just a little under a month ago.

The Panthers were able to win the first of a two game set this weekend that will make or break their seeding in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

The win, a 75-51 drubbing of Morehead State, was the exact opposite of the win Eastern had when they traveled to Morehead January 22.

“This is what I had hoped to see in an aggressive effort,” Eastern head coach Rick Samuels said. “I think we took away their two strengths. One was we took away their high screen and the other was the posting up of Kyle Umberger.”

There were some similarities to the game from a month ago and Thursday night’s game.

In the first game the Panthers were down big early in the first half, just as the Eagles were in Thursday’s game.

Morehead State made a run near the end of the half to pull within 11., which was very similar to the run that the Panthers made to end the first half at Morehead State.

And that is pretty much where the similarities end. The second half was pretty much a showcase for how good the Panthers can be when they turn it on.

“In the first game we shot the ball well in the first half, and they still were able to come back on us,” Morehead State head coach Kyle Macy said. “We had hoped that we could do the same to them, but we couldn’t.”

From the hot shooting from behind the arc, the good defense and the two thunderous alley-oops thrown down by Kyle Hill and Henry Domercant, Eastern showed why they will be a team to be reckoned with in the OVC tournament.

“They really dominated us all night long, you have to give them credit. They played extremely well tonight,” Macy said.

But the Panthers didn’t just rely on the “big three” and the offense to win them the game as they did against the Eagles in their first meeting.

In that game they needed a huge offensive explosion in the last 10 to 15 minutes to win the game.

While this game relied more on the defense and the offense that came off of it. There were numerous times that Morehead State shots were altered and or blocked. More times than not the blocks came from freshman Ryan Kelly, who finished the night with four blocks.

In the game in January the Eagles shot extremely well from the floor. Last night’s game saw Morehead State shoot 28 percent in the first half.

“I think we were able to take them out of what they wanted to do offensively,” Hill said. “I think our big guys did a great job tonight of defending, and we played great team defense, and good offense comes from good defense.”

Not too mention the players that don’t get all of the notoriety that the “big three” get. Players like Jesse Mackinson who had six points, and Todd Bergmann who added five points.

“I don’t have any problem with scoring points, and I don’t have a problem with my teammates scoring points either,” Hill said. “When those guys can score some points it takes some pressure off of Henry and I.”

Maybe the turnaround against the Eagles was the fact the Panthers were playing at Lantz Gymnasium, where they have won every one of their 11 games.

“That always seems to happen to us at their place. They had us down last year by like 17, and we came back to blow them out,” Hill said. “But that was at their place, that kind of stuff doesn’t happen at Panther Palace.”