Eastern was not given a warm welcome as it went on the road to Murray State for their final game. The Panthers dropped the game by 30 points, 81-51, as the Racers dominated the game throughout.

In just about every key statistical category the Panthers were outdone by the Racers. This was especially the case in turnovers, which is the one category Murray State coach Mike Cronin pays attention to most because of his love for the pressure defense his team utilizes.

With 18 steals in the game for Murray State and only eight assists for the Panthers, the Racers defense made its mark against Eastern. With the 18 steals and a few other errors by Eastern, the Panthers’ turnover total reached 26.

“To play an up-tempo game like we prefer, you’ve got to play up-tempo defense first, and we were able to do that tonight,” Cronin said. “We had 61 deflections on defense, which is the second highest we’ve had all season long.”

The Panthers had no response to the defense that Cronin’s team uses, and thus the Panthers only had 13 field goals all game long. That is why the Panthers were only able to shoot a little over 32 percent from the field.

For the Panther players who took five or more shots only senior center Jesse Mackinson ended up shooting at or above 50 percent from the floor. The one bright spot offensively was Eastern’s ability to get to the free throw line on a consistent basis. By the end of the game, the Panthers had made 30 trips to the charity stripe and were able to convert on 24 of their chances.

This Eastern loss ended the season and brought the reality forth that the Panthers are not going to be playing as the Ohio Valley Conference starts it’s tournament this week.

Eastern knew they weren’t going to make the tournament before this final game, but as the season ended, the reality that no basketball will be played by this team during March sunk in.

But Murray State looks forward not only to the conference tournament but also to the NCAA Tournament as Cronin feels that his team should garner some attention for at least an at-large bid.

Cronin feels that if his Racers don’t win the OVC tournament, they should still be looked at as one of the mid-major teams to represent the OVC in the NCAA Tournament.

“Whether we get in or not is up to the NCAA selection committee, but I do think that we should get a look at the very least,” Cronin said.