The Panthers men’s basketball team will try and snap Southeast Missouri’s five-game winning streak when the two teams tip-off at 7:35 p.m. in Lantz Arena.

Eastern, who snapped Samford’s six-game winning streak earlier this season at Lantz, will have to contain one of the Ohio Valley Conference’s best frontcourt tandems if the Panthers are to play spoiler again.

Senior forwards Dainmon Gonner and Reggie Golson are two of the conference’s top four scorers. Gonner leads the OVC with 20.3 points per game, and Golson’s 16.6 is fourth in the conference.

The pair combined for 47 points in SEMO’s 79-60 win over the Panthers on Jan. 11 in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

“Gonner and Golson did pretty much everything,” senior guard Josh Gomes said. “We realize those two guys shoot most of their balls.

“We just have to watch for those two guys and contain them on the defense.”

Golson led all players with 24 points in the prior meeting, hitting 10-of-12 from the field.

Samuels said the Panthers (9-12, 4-6 OVC) were prepared for SEMO’s triangle offense, but the Redhawks (11-10, 6-4) were able to exploit Eastern by going backdoor.

“We have to do a better job of defending their rear screens. They were able to beat us on that,” head coach Rick Samuels.

On offense, the Panthers will try and deal with a predictable half-court man-to-man defense.

“I think (SEMO head coach Gary) Garner’s allergic to zone,” Samuels said. “I don’t think they’ll come after us full-court because they only play seven guys, and they’ve been playing those seven guys for two months.”

The Panthers will try to get big games out of their own duo, senior guard Emanuel Dildy and Gomes. In the first meeting with SEMO, Gomes led the Panthers with 21 points, but the Redhawks limited Dildy to just 5 points on 2-of-9 shooting.

“We were flat-footed,” Samuels said. “We didn’t play with a very good rhythm offense.”

But in Eastern’s 96-91 overtime win Saturday over Tennessee-Martin, the Panther offense was in rhythm, scoring 10 more points than they have in a game than they have all year.

“We just won on Saturday, so we’re still rolling from that,” Gomes said.

The Panthers have been on a roll lately, winning five of their last six OVC contests. And, in their last four games at Lantz Arena, the Panthers are 3-1.

But SEMO is also streaking, winning six-of-eight games, including road victories over Tennessee-Martin and Murray State in its last two outings.

“We’re playing much more confidently than when we played them before, but so must they,” Samuels said. “They’ve just won two big games on the road, and they’ve won five-straight games.”