Although the men’s basketball team took its third win in the Ohio Valley Conference Saturday against Eastern Kentucky, the Panthers did it in a different fashion than the others – it wasn’t a comeback win.

After two nail-biting games against Southeast Missouri and Morehead State, Eastern dominated Lantz Arena with an 86-59 win over the Colonels.

“I feel better,” head coach Rick Samuels said. “Eastern Kentucky’s a team that’s been struggling. We did good things. We’re getting better. We’re finding the pieces.”

Eastern never trailed after the first three minutes of play, taking as much as a 13-point lead in the first half and doubling it in the second to win by 27.

“We talked about having that killer instinct,” sophomore guard Chris Herrera said. “Putting them down and getting up by 15 to be able to run away with the game.”

Junior forward Henry Domercant led the Panthers in scoring and rebounding, finishing the game with 37 points and 15 boards. Domercant was 6-for-8 from three-point range and a perfect 7-for-7 at the charity stripe.

Junior guard Craig Lewis scored 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds by the end of the night. Junior guard J.R. Reynolds continued to increase his minutes on the court after suffering a knee injury over the semester break. He finished with six points and four rebounds after playing 18 minutes.

“Craig Lewis is stepping up and finding what he can do offensively for us and we need to get J.R. (Reynolds) into a rhythm. But we can just never get Henry going,” Samuels joked.

Sophomore John Thorsen and freshmen Chris Bennett and Adam Durham saw time on the court as well, allowing the starters to watch the final minutes of play from the bench.

“It always feels good to get other kids in the game,” Samuels said. “It’s nice to let the guys who play the majority of minutes cheer for the other guys because I think our bench supports us well.”

Redshirt-freshman Andy Gobczynski also increased his time on the court, scoring seven points in 16 minutes.

“I like his progress. He’s benefitted by Ryan Kelly’s injury and he’s making the best of it,” Samuels said. “Andy’s a kid who can shoot the ball. He’s a tough kid.”

The Panthers end their four-game homestand tonight when they host Benedictine in a non-conference matchup at 7:10 p.m. in Lantz Arena.

“We need to continue our offensive continuity and try to keep our momentum going for our conference play,” Lewis said.