The Eastern men’s basketball team could not stop Murray State down the stretch run as the Panthers’ season came to an end after a 74-63 loss.

The Panthers (14-15) had the Racers (17-11) on their heels with the score tied at 46 with 11 minutes remaining in the game, but missed opportunities and a late Racer run buried Eastern’s hopes of going to Nashville.

The Panthers found themselves down 38-27 early in the second half, but they stormed back to tie the game at 46 apiece. From there the Racers took advantage of missed Panther chances and late free throws to seal the win.

“We just missed some opportunities when we closed the gap,” Eastern head coach Rick Samuels said.

“They have got to look up with 10 minutes left in the second half and we are still staring them in the face. When we got to that point we turned it over two or three times, we charged and we just didn’t give ourselves the chance to keep them on their heels.”

Eastern opened the game shooting the ball poorly, making just 33 percent of their shots in the first half.

The Racers built a 10 point lead to take a 34-24 lead into the locker room. Senior forward Cuthbert Victor was strong for the Racers from the get-go leading his team with 12 first half points on 5-of-7 shooting.

Eastern came out in the second half with a desire to make a comeback. It all started with senior guard Henry Domercant.

Domercant began to catch fire right after he broke the Ohio Valley Conference career scoring record with just over 15 minutes left in the game. During a five minute stretch, he scored 12 straight points for the Panthers.

“He is going to get his points,” Murray forward Antoine Whelchel said. “Our job was to make sure he worked for every point he got.”

Domercant said the game was more important than the record.

“My heart is broken right now,” Domercant said. “All I can focus on is things that could have changed the game.”

The Racers pulled away for good as they made a 12 -2 run with six minutes remaining forcing Eastern to foul for the rest of the game.

Victor led Racer scorers with 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting while senior center James Singleton contributed a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds.

Senior guard Craig Lewis was the only other Panther than Domercant to get in double figures as he finished with 10. The next highest scorer was junior center Jesse Mackinson with 6 points on 1-of-4 shooting.

Domercant ended the game with a final three-pointer to give him 33 for the night and put him among only 25 others to score 2,600 career points.

Both Samuels and Murray head coach Tevester Anderson spoke well of Domercant after his last collegiate game.

“I told him I really enjoyed playing against him and that he was an outstanding player and he is an outstanding person. I wish him all the luck in the future,” Anderson Said.

“There will never be another one,” Samuels added. “He is a better person than he is a basketball player.”

The Racers move on to Nashville, Tenn., Friday to play the winner of Austin Peay and Eastern Kentucky match up.