Eastern head coach Rick Samuels is not as confident as he usually is before the Panthers play a home game.

“They’re really good,” were the first words out of Samuels’ mouth when he was asked about their 7:10 p.m. meeting with Austin Peay Thursday.

While Samuels may be a little worried about playing the second-place Governors, the Panthers still need to pick up this win since they have three games remaining in the regular season. It could be Eastern’s last home game of the year, where the team is 9-2 this season.

It will be the last game in Lantz Arena for the Panthers’ five seniors it they can’t work their way into the top four teams in the Ohio Valley Conference standings.

It could be a difficult accomplishment for Eastern with games remaining against the Governors and third-ranked Tennessee Tech.

“We want to focus on the next game, but we just can’t ignore the upcoming games and the impact they will have on positioning in the conference tournament,” Samuels said. “But overall, we just want to play the best we can right now.”

Both teams head into this matchup with a clear memory of the first battle the two squads had earlier in the year. The game went into overtime with the Governors coming out on top by seven points.

After losing that game, the Panthers have won six of their last eight and enter playing their best basketball of the season. Their last win put the them over the .500 mark, where they have been hovering around for the past month.

Adding more intrigue to this game will be the rivalry the two teams seem to be building up. With the last matchup going into overtime, close games seem to be the norm for these two teams.

“I think we just match up really well with each other right now,” Samuels said. “It is hard to tell whether this is a rivalry because all the games within the OVC have been so close this year, but the players do seem to get a little more juiced up for this game.”

Proving both teams have a good amount of respect for each other Austin Peay head coach Dave Loos had good things to say about the Panthers. Referring to the earlier season match up between the two squads, Loos said the win boosted his team at the time.

“I can’t help but think that game really lifted our spirits and gave us some confidence,” Loose said. “I think when we played that game we were 1-2 (in conference), so to take that game and even up our record helped us move up the standings.”

Loose also commented on Thursday’s game and understands how much senior guard Henry Domercant means to the Panthers.

“We do play good defense and have been playing well at the offensive end lately,” Loos said. “But for them you have to start with Domercant, but he is certainly not the only thing they have.”

Eastern will have to prove this comment to be true in order to beat the Governors this time around.