With one shot the Panther men’s basketball team proved it was good to be home, as Eastern defeated the Austin Peay Governors 63-51 Thursday at Lantz Arena.

The win snapped a six-game losing streak, with all six contests coming on the road.

The Panthers (6-10, 1-4 Ohio Valley Conference) trailed just once in the second half, but the Governors (5-12, 3-2) kept the game close. A jumper from junior center Eric Schlader with five minutes left brought Austin Peay within two.

Two free-throws from junior guard Josh Gomes gave them a four-point lead. And then, with just over two minutes to play, the Panthers found themselves smothered by the Governors’ defensive pressure with the shot-clock winding down.

But then, with just three seconds left to shoot, senior guard Emanuel Dildy drained a closely guarded, fading three-pointer to give Eastern a 58-51 lead.

“That shot was huge,” Eastern Head Coach Rick Samuels said. “You could tell that it was just a back-breaker.”

Dildy finished with a game-high 21 points and said he was just waiting for the right moment down the stretch.

“I felt like if I got an inch of daylight that I’d have a good shot of making it,” Dildy said.

Dildy had another good chance to beat the buzzer at the end of the first half. After an Austin Peay miss, Dildy had a good look at the basket from about 25 feet. But his try fell short,

He said he was upset he let a chance to gain momentum going into the locker room slip away.

“I was happy to have missed that one in the first half than to miss the one late game,” Dildy said.

Gomes finished with 20 points on a 7-of-16 shooting night. Senior Aaron Patterson snatched a game-high 9 rebounds, and freshman center added seven rebounds.

The Panthers held the Governors to 31.4 percent from the field, including a 2-of-15 night from behind the three-point line.

Austin Peay Head Coach Dave Loos said his team is struggling to put points up on the scoreboard.

“We just can’t seem to score,” he said. “But I can’t take anything way from them; they come out and guard you.”

Loos said he was impressed with the backcourt play of the Dildy and Gomes. In the first meeting between the two teams on Jan. 8, The Govs held the duo to 17 points combined.

“Coming into the game, it was what worried me most,” he said. “The first time we played, they didn’t play all that well.

“I knew we weren’t going to get lucky twice.”

The Panthers try to make it two straight at 7:05 p.m. Saturday at Lantz Arena when they take on Tennessee Tech.