There is no joy in Nashville .

This rip-off from Casey at the Bat perfectly describes how the Eastern men’s hoops team felt after they fell 55-51 to No. 1 Murray State Friday in Bridgestone Arena during the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament semifinals.

Mudville should have been the playing site, as both squads wrestled each other for loose balls and post shots as if they were in a muddy field.

Eastern senior center Ousmane Cisse was hit hard in the eye and left the game. Both red-shirt freshman forward James Hollowell and senior guard T.J. Marion banged their knees.

The Panthers also were scrappy on defense, holding the offensively-dangerous Racers to 32.2 percent shooting, about 19 percent below their season average. Eastern shot 42.6 percent.

At one point, Eastern led 39-37 with under 10 minutes to go when the Racers’ drove ahead for a 54-49 lead.

The game came down to the final seconds, as junior guard Tyler Laser sliced in the lane for a quick two to make it 54-51.

Laser then tried to further cutting the deficit when Racers’ senior forward Tony Easley easily rejected Laser’s shot.

Cisse tried coming to the rescue, but Easley blocked it again.

And that is all she wrote for the Panthers’ season, which ended in a disappointing, dejecting and frustrating manner as the players slowly left the court.

The press conference was the last place Laser, Cisse and Eastern head coach Mike Miller wanted to be, but they came anyway to face media scrutiny.

“It was very challenging for me,” Cisse said of Murray State’s post play. “I think they came out very aggressive.”

Reporters then asked about the Racers’ press, which produced 17 Eastern giveaways.

“We were playing on our heels today and we weren’t attacking it like we normally should,” Laser said. “They gave us some problems when they probably shouldn’t have if we would’ve played the way we play.”

Not attacking the press hurt the offense greatly.

“I don’t think we had a real good offensive rhythm in the game, so we couldn’t get going,” Miller said.

For next year, Laser said winning is everything.

“Our number one goal is to win the conference championship and see what you could do in the (NCAA) Tournament,” he said. “It was our goal this year. It has been my goal every year I’ve been here. We had a great season but we fell short because we didn’t win the championship.”

Despite failing, the men’s team had a realistic self-evaluation of their tournament performance. Winning is the goal.

They are not making any excuses like the women’s team did Saturday.

Bob Bajek can be reached at 581-7944 or [email protected].