The past couple games the Eastern men’s basketball team seemed to have been playing better basketball. They put themselves in position to win on the road at Samford and Jacksonville State but couldn’t find a way to pull out a win. The return home was simply not the case.

The Panthers were never in the game Thursday night against Murray State.

“I think Murray State is real good,” Eastern head coach Rick Samuels said.

Good doesn’t begin to describe how Murray State shot the ball in the first half. They shot 63 percent from the field going 20-32 from the field including 5-11 from three-point range.

In the hot shooting first half, the Racers’ Andi Hornig, Kevin Paschel and Chris Summate all were perfect from the field and only missed one of eight free throws.

In total, Hornig, Paschal and Summate combined for 38 of the team’s 51 first half points. Summate lead the three with 20 first half points.

Murray State had the Panthers reeling early but that’s not a new thing for the team.

Coach Samuels said his team need to find a way to get off to a decent start so his team can dictate what goes on the rest of the game.

“We didn’t come out with any fire tonight,” Aaron Paterson said. “We haven’t done that once this year.”

Murray State dictated the game going on a 20-1 run from 17:40 to 12:31 in the first half. The run ended with a Paterson lay-up. However the Racers weren’t done.

Murray State went a 13-0 run that started at 12:00 mark and ended with Emmanuel Dildy’s three-pointer with 7:17 left in the first half. Add those two runs up and the Racers run totals 33-3 from 17:40 to 7:17.

“They came out with great intensity,” Jake Sinclair said. “They played hard and we didn’t.”

Sinclair finished the game with 16 points but said, “It doesn’t matter how many points you get or how many shots you take.”

As good as Murray State’s offense was, it was their defense that had the Panthers searching for open passing lanes from the get go.

“That’s a very strong, imposing, physical team,” Samuels said. “Their imposing strength on defense took us out of the game early.”

The Racer defense forced the Panthers to turn the ball over 12 times in the first half.

“Our guards couldn’t get around them and that presented some problems,” Samuels said.

The second half was a different story as the Panthers outscored the Racers 45-34, but it fell into the too little too late category.

The Panthers went on a late 16-0 run that started with 3:50 left in the game and ended when the final buzzer sounded with a lay-up by Josh Gomes.

Coach Samuels said the Panthers have to shake the Murray State game off and get after it in practice on Friday.

“We already started talking about the Tennessee Martin game in the locker room tonight,” Samuels said.

The bottom line is the Panthers lost big but as embarrassing as it was, it wasn’t a demoralizing loss.

“We just have to put this one behind us and get after it in practice tomorrow,” Paterson said. “We have to work to get in the top eight in conference and try to make a run in the tournament.”