February 14 is a day most couples are thinking about romance and love, but at the same time, most college basketball teams are thinking about their position in the standings as March Madness approaches.

Eastern is no exception. Both men’s and women’s team are in the middle of the conference race. Going into Thursday and Saturday’s Ohio Valley Conference games, both Panther squads had chances to move up in the standings.

But Murray State had other ideas for the men’s team. Eastern came into the game sitting in fourth place, a half game ahead of the Racers. The Racers followed their come-from-behind win at Lantz Arena earlier this season with a blowout over the Panthers at home. The last time Eastern played at the Regional Special Events Center, the Racers obliterated the Panthers 103-56.

The Panthers were not blown out of the game by 47 points. Instead, they were handily defeated by 19. Either way, they still lost and fell in the standings.

A narrow defeat of the University of Tennessee-Martin kept the Panthers from falling even further in the standings. Senior guard Henry Domercant showed just how clutch he was by nailing down a free throw in the closing seconds of the game to give the Panthers a one-point 85-84 win.

The Panthers fell down a spot in the OVC rankings to fifth, but stand just half a game away from Murray and Tennessee Tech. Odds are Eastern could fall even further in the standings. Their next game is against second place Austin Peay, who has lost just two conference games this season and won two games this week to lock up a home game in the first round of the OVC Tournament.

But the Panthers will play the Governors in Lantz Arena, an advantage helping the Panthers defeat first place Morehead State last week.

Eastern’s next game is a gimmie. The Panthers will play a troubled Tennessee State team with only two wins in 23 games and a 0-12 OVC record.

Eastern’s final standings will come down to the final game of the regular season when they face off with Tech at Cookeville, Tenn.

The status quo was maintained in OVC women’s basketball this weekend. No one moved up or fell in the standings. Of the six women’s games played in the OVC this weekend, only one road team won. Southeast Missouri defeated last place Murray State Saturday.

The women’s race is a little less exciting than the men’s. Preseason favorite Austin Peay is undefeated in conference play and sits atop the standings. Eastern Kentucky is not far behind with a 10-2 record and SEMO is in third at 9-3.

This leaves one spot left for a home tournament game and four teams with a chance to claim it. Eastern is among those four teams, but does not have great odds of winning it.

The 5-18, 4-8 Panthers will have to win three of their last four games and Morehead and Tennessee-Martin would have to lose all four of their remaining games for Eastern to overtake them.

The good news for the Panthers is they have an excellent chance to win three games. They play the worst two teams in the conference, Murray 1-10 and Tennessee State 2-10. The Panthers also play Tech, who they are tied with in the conference standings and Eastern beat earlier this season. The only game Eastern is at a decisive disadvantage in is when they play Austin Peay Thursday, but at least they will have home court advantage.

March Madness is quickly approaching and Charleston might get to experience some of it first hand if the scores end up in the Panthers favor in the next couple of weeks.