The magic number for Austin Peay to clinch a share of the Ohio Valley Conference regular season title is two, but the Governors want to make history in 2002-2003.

Austin Peay (19-3, 11-0) is striving to be only the fifth team in OVC history to end a conference season undefeated, and the team will try to do it by winning its fourth straight game in Lantz Arena.

The Governors are led by senior guard Brooke Armistead with nearly 17 points per game who is looking to sweep the Panthers in her four-year career at Austin Peay.

The Governors have won their last 14 games, 11 of them by 10 or more.

“They’re a very difficult team to defend because they can beat you in so many ways,” Eastern head coach Linda Wunder said.

Eastern (5-19, 4-9) is currently on a four-game losing streak and has lost 11 of its last 15 games since the beginning of January. The Panthers have 24 days separating them from their loss against with the Governors, which ended with a score of 73-53 at Clarskville, Tenn., Jan. 27.

“I don’t know if there’s ever enough time to prepare for (Austin Peay),” Wunder said.

Thursday night will mark the final home game for center Brooke Gossett and forward Kayla Bloomer. Gossett has appeared in all 106 games as a Panther and is having a career year in points (10.1) and rebounds (5.3). Bloomer is currently 26 points away from 500 in 103 career games.

The key to Thursday night’s game could be at the free throw line, where Eastern was hurt in a pair of losses last weekend to Tennessee-Martin and Murray State. The Panthers’ opponents were a combined 47-of-55 (85 percent), including 41-of-44 (93 percent) in the second half.

“I’m disappointed we didn’t come away with a win because we put ourselves in a position to do that,” Wunder said.

Panther fans can breathe easier with the return of guard Ashley Kearney over the weekend, who was out for five games nursing a sore back. Kearney nearly missed her first career double-double at Murray State with nine points and a career high nine assists.

Don’t expect the Governors to be over-confident coming to Charleston as the overwhelming conference leader.

“Every game that we play we know that we can lose,” Austin Peay head coach Susie Gardner said.