Northern Illinois had plenty of chances to defeat the Eastern men’s basketball team Saturday night in Lantz Arena, but couldn’t.

Late in the game, Eastern senior center Ousmane Cisse missed a dunk. The Panthers turned the ball over against the NIU press in the final three minutes and Eastern junior guard Tyler Laser and senior guard T.J. Marion almost gave the Huskies a chance to win the game.

But the Panthers managed to hang on for a 73-70 victory in an ESPNU BracketBusters event and assured itself of a winning season for the first time since the 2000-2001 season.

Marion and Laser knocked over NIU’s Darion Anderson with 3.4 seconds left in the game as he was taking a three-pointer, giving him the opportunity to shoot three free throws.

Laser was called for the foul but Marion said he thought he hit Anderson’s hand.

Luckily for the Panthers, Anderson, who is a 74 percent free throw shooter, missed his first two shots and Eastern junior guard Curry McKinney would seal the game with two free throws after hitting the game-winning free throws on the previous trip.

The Panthers have won five games in a row as the Huskies continue their slide with 10 straight losses.

“We got a little bit rattled, but I don’t think we ever broke,” Eastern head coach Mike Miller said. “It was a little bit choppy. We had to make a lot of plays.”

McKinney and Marion combined to score 16 points in the second half as Eastern led 69-62 with 3 minutes, 55 seconds left in the game.

During this stretch, the Panthers missed easy chip shots and the Huskies (8-18) capitalized until pulling even with 49 seconds left in the game at 69-69.

“We found a way to win,” McKinney said. “It worked out.”

The time in which NIU evened the score, Cisse missed his dunk, but he would redeem himself by blocking the inbound pass on NIU’s final possession.

“I deflected the ball,” Cisse said. “I didn’t know what else was going on.”

Cissse and the Panthers (16-11) didn’t have an answer for Northern Illinois junior center Sean Kowal who led all scorer with 20 points, with 15 coming in the second half.

“We almost pulled this one out tonight; we put ourselves in a position to win the ball game late with some ball pressure and good offensive execution,” NIU head coach Ricardo Patton said. “Obviously we came up short, and that’s disappointing. We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well from the perimeter, but we threw the ball inside to Kowal, and he was big for us. He’s really coming into his own, and I’m excited to see him continue to improve down the stretch of the season.”

Eastern red-shirt freshman forward James Hollowell did not play because of a family emergency.

The Panthers had four players finish in double figures with Laser leading the way with 19 points. Marion added 13 points.

McKinney and sophomore forward Zavier Sanders chipped in with 11 points.

Marion and McKinney had key second-half runs by driving the lane against Northern Illinois’ 1-3-1 zone.

The Panthers limited NIU junior guard Xavier Silas to four points in the second half. He finished with 19 points. The Huskies struggled from beyond the arc, shooting 8-of-35.

The Panthers won the rebounding battle 42-30 but finished with 17 turnovers.

Silas and Anderson shot a combined 4-of-18 from beyond the arc.

“We knew we had to get out to their shooters,” Marion said. “We had to stop their penetration.”

Eastern returns to action on Thursday when it will play Austin Peay 7 p.m. in Lantz Arena.

The Panthers are 2-3 in the ESPNU BracketBusters event. The Ohio Valley Conference went 3-8 this season including a win from the Panthers.

Kevin Murphy can be reached at 581-7944 or [email protected].