The Panther men’s basketball team found itself with a chance to make an adjustment late in the second half Saturday night at Lantz Arena.

Eastern could either continue to try and guard Jacksonville State’s four-guard lineup, or head coach Rick Samuels could counter the Gamecocks’ unorthodox lineup with a four-guard set of his own.

Samuels chose the latter, and the Panthers overcame a ten-point halftime deficit to defeat Jacksonville State 66-63.

“They were playing with four guards all night,” Samuels said. “We just had trouble matching up.”

The Panthers (8-11, 3-5 Ohio Valley Conference) trailed the Gamecocks (4-16, 0-8) by four, 55-51, when freshman guard Bobby Catchings entered the game for freshman forward Austin Hogue. Catchings joined senior forward Andy Gobczynski, senior guard Emanuel Dildy, junior guard Josh Gomes and junior guard Jake Sinclair on the floor.

The five stayed in the game for the final 7 minutes, 11 seconds and matched the Gamecocks’ quickness – especially when guarding the OVC’s assist leader, junior guard Walker D. Russell.

The Gamecocks’ offense, Samuels said, consisted of Russell dribbling past screens on the perimeter. The offense forced Samuels into subbing Catchings for Hogue.

The change allowed the Panthers to switch on defense, instead of fighting through screeners, Gomes said.

“Austin (Hogue) can’t switch off onto Walker D. Russell,” Samuels said. “Bobby’s long … slides his feet very well and can be kind of intimidating with his length.”

The substitution paid off when Catchings switched onto Russell with just over 3 minutes left and blocked the smaller Russell’s three-point attempt.

On the ensuing possession, Dildy found Gomes spotting up beyond the arc, and Gomes delivered by hitting the three-pointer to put Eastern up 62-57.

“Bobby’s long, so he’s able to give (Russell) a couple of steps and still be able to get out on his jump shot,” Dildy said. “It was probably the biggest play of the game.”

Dildy covered Russell for much of the game, and it was a defensive assignment that made him work.

“Everything runs through him, and you didn’t get any breaks,” Dildy said. “Ninety-five percent of the time the ball was in his hands.

“So, you have to constantly work to fight through picks.”

But, when the Panthers used a four-guard lineup of their own, guarding Russell, who finished with 12 points and nine assists, became a little easier.

“That was the problem in the first half – that we couldn’t switch,” Dildy said. “Walter Russell is extremely good at coming off of a ball screen.

“He’s extremely quick, so that helped when we were able to put Bobby out there and just switch – that really slowed him down a lot.”