Eastern let Tennessee State back into the game one too many times Saturday night at Lantz Arena.

It was evident on the final play.

TSU’s junior guard Bruce Price hit a falling jumper with 3.3 seconds left to secure a 74-72 win against Eastern.

“He does what he’s supposed to do,” said Eastern head men’s basketball coach Mike Miller. “He makes a play. They keep it within striking distance and make a play.”

Eastern junior guard Mike Robinson threw a hand in his face, but Price still made it from the left side.

“It looked like when I was dribbling out here, Eastern Illinois’ back line was looking for me to drive it hard to the rim,” Price said. “Basically, the shot that I wanted was the shot I had been working on everyday.”

Price, a Minneapolis native, finished with 21 points, three rebounds, four assists and two steals.

“I wanted to lean (Robinson) one way and just step back off him,” Price said. “Any time it’s going down to the last second, you’re going to get a hand there. It was a real good clean look at the shot, but I knew if I got a second look at the shot – a little bit – I knew it had a good shot of going in.”

Robinson’s half-court heave as time expired fell short, and Eastern (1-8, 0-2 Ohio Valley Conference) lost its eighth-straight game.

Eastern senior Bobby Catchings missed two critical free throws in the final four minutes.

The Naperville native finished 12-of-15 from the free throw line. He finished with 25 points and seven rebounds.

Eastern seemed to have control of the game with key 3-pointers from Robinson and sophomore guard Romain Martin.

Robinson’s 3-pointer gave Eastern a 67-65 lead with 4:37 remaining in the second half.

Martin’s 3-pointer extended Eastern’s 64-59 lead with 6:30 remaining.

The problem: TSU, after Martin’s 3-pointer, scored six points in less than a minute and a half in the second half to take a 65-64 lead.

Eastern’s defense couldn’t find a way to stop TSU.

“We made too many mistakes,” Miller said. “We broke down. We allowed people to cut by us and around us. And there wasn’t one. There was several.”

Miller didn’t make any of his players available to the media after the game.

The Tigers (3-5, 1-1) outscored Eastern 48-33 in the second half.

The Panthers limited Price to 12 points in the first half and 0-4 from beyond the arc, but couldn’t stop his teammates in the second half. Price was the only Tiger in double digits at the half.

Eastern led 39-26 at the half.

Eastern was led by Catchings with 15 points. Martin had 10 points.

“Bobby Catchings and Romain Martin did a great job,” said TSU head men’s basketball coach Cy Alexander. “They both are keys to Eastern Illinois’ team, and both are capable of being all-conference kinds of players. We ran about three or four different players on them, but they still got their numbers. They did what they needed to do to keep EIU in the game, but I want to commend our guys because we fought and even though they scored, we tried to make their life difficult for them.”

TSU was led by Price with 12 points.

Eastern went to the foul line often in the first half. The Panthers went 16-of-19 in the first half. Catchings was a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line.

Martin also went 3-of-3 from the free throw line.

The Panthers shot 45 percent from the field in the first half.

The Panthers play Eastern Kentucky at 6 p.m. Dec. 17 in Richmond, Ky.