For the first time all season, Eastern won a game on the road Thursday when the team defeated Tennessee State 84-80. The win also guaranteed Eastern a spot in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament for the second year in a row.

The Panthers (6-20, 5-10) fell behind 8-0 to start the game, but they stormed back to tie the game at the break 29-29.

“I thought the key for the last five minutes of the first half was when we went on a 12-2 run to tie the game,” Eastern head coach Linda Wunder said.

In the second half, the Panthers surged ahead.

Eastern went on a 45-15 run and led by as many as 16 points in the game, but it wasn’t enough to make the Tigers (4-21, 2-13) go away quietly.

The Tigers roared back to tie the game at 80 late in the game.

“I was surprised they got that close, but we did miss a couple chances and they came down and scored,” Wunder said. “They made a lot from the free throw line in the second half, which helped them to score with the clock stopped.”

Eastern went up by two thanks to free throws by redshirt-freshman guard Ashley Kearney and Junior guard Lauren Dailey. Both split sets of free throws after Tennessee State tied the scored. With 11 seconds left and trailing by two, the Tigers held out for the final shot of the game. But junior center Allison Collins made one of the biggest defensive stops of the season by blocking the Tigers shot.

“They probably felt it was a foul,” Wunder said. “I thought it was a clean play. We got a huge defensive stop when we needed it.”

The loose ball was recovered by freshman guard Megan Sparks, who was quickly fouled sending her to the free throw line because the Tigers were in double bonus.

Sparks made both of her free shots to secure a four-point win.

“The last minute we could have panicked, but we didn’t,” Wunder said. “We ran what we should have ran offensively and our players made enough plays to win.”

Dailey led all scorers with 21 points. Four other Panthers scored in double digits in the game; Collins scored 15 points, Sparks had 13, junior forward Katie Meyers scored 11 as did sophomore guard Rachel Karos.

Quanecia Fletcher led the Tigers in scoring with 19 points.

Eastern will wrap up its regular season Saturday when the team faces Tennessee Tech (10-15, 5-9 prior to Thursday).