In a contest representing the entire Panther season, Eastern guard Henry Domercant carried the team as far as he could Saturday night, but the Panthers fell at Tennessee Tech 97-84.

“The unbalance in the scoring was a big key in the game,” Samuels said.

The loss became even more demoralizing after Murray State won 80-59 on the road against Tennessee-Martin moving the Racers (16-11, 9-7) into fourth place in the Ohio Valley Conference and the Panthers (14-14, 9-7) into fifth. The two teams’ final standings send them to Murray for a rematch of last season’s first round OVC Tournament game, which the Racers won 103-56.

“Going to Murray isn’t fun but we are confident we can play well there,” Samuels said.

In his last appearance at the Eblen Center in Cookville, Tenn., Domercant broke the arena record with a career high 46 points on 12 of 20 shooting. It was the first time Domercant earned a career high during a Panther loss.

“Henry was moving very well without the ball and attacking the basket,” Samuels said.

However, the rest of the Panthers only scored a total of 38 points with freshman Josh Gomes the only other Eastern player in double digits with 11.

Both teams shot the ball well at nearly 50 percent from the floor, but the key was Tech’s ability to get five players in double digits and shut Domercant’s teammates down.

“We simply couldn’t guard them no matter what lineup we had in,” Samuels said.

Because Tech head coach Mike Sutton started five seniors on Senior Night, junior guard Cameron Crisp, who started and in all 28 of Tech’s games prior to Saturday, came off the bench to earn a double-double with 26 points and 11 assists on nine of 17 from the field and five of eight from beyond the arc.

“It was a real hostile environment with Senior Night and they had a high energy level,” Samuels said.

After the opening tip, both teams went back and forth until Tech went on a 14-6 run to increase its early lead to seven and never trailed for the rest of the evening.

With 7:55 left in the first half, Tech held a modest 28-17 lead, but went on a 14-8 run while senior Damien Kinloch was having trainers retaped his right ankle.

The Golden Eagles rode the momentum from those runs to a 46-29 halftime while out rebounding the Panthers 24-11 in the half.

“We really have to make a better effort to keep people off the boards to defeat anybody,” Samuels said.

The Golden Eagles came out of the locker room to increase their advantage to 22 points within the five minutes of the final half while Eastern switched to a 2-3 zone defense.

The Panthers responded by going on a 14-0 run which including eight points by Domercant and suddenly the deficit was down to 60-52.

Within the next six minutes of play, Domercant’s supporting cast remained scoreless while the OVC Preseason Player of the Year scored 10 consecutive points.

By the Panthers could not come any closer than seven during the second half, and over the final 3:18, the Panthers were outscored 14-8 due to the Golden Eagles near-perfect foul shooting (7-8).