The Eastern men’s basketball team has been here before — beat Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and it is in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

Lose, and the Panthers’ postseason destiny is in the hands of Southeast Missouri and Austin Peay.

“The last thing you need is for a guy to think about is things that are out of his control,” Eastern coach Jay Spoonhour said.

For everyone else, it is near impossible to consider all that is out of Eastern’s control.

But what is in Eastern’s control is Edwardsville at 5 p.m. Saturday in Edwardsville.

“We have to remain concentrated on the nuts and bolts of this game, not the meaning of it,” Spoonhour said.

The Panthers, who are 6-9 in the OVC, will clinch a tourney berth with a win against a Cougar team, which has a 7-8 conference mark and already lost to the Panthers 76-70 in Lantz Arena on Feb. 1.

However, if the Panthers lose at the Vadalabene Center, conference foes Southeast Missouri and Austin Peay will determine whether or not Eastern gets into the tournament.

Last season, Eastern faced an eerily similar scenario: beat Edwardsville and Eastern clinched a postseason berth; lose to Edwardsville, and other teams determined Eastern’s chances.

Eastern won 61-46 in Lantz Arena last season, clinching the No. 7 seed.

But to Spoonhour, that was last season.

“There is enough motivation for this game,” he said.

Only four current players on Eastern’s 17-man roster were on that same team last season.

Edwardsville, meanwhile, has seven of its current 12-man roster that returned from last season. So, perhaps the idea of a redemption game is aided by an even more experienced roster for the Cougars.

In its last nine games, Edwardsville is averaging nearly 80 points per game, with only one player averaging double-digit points in Donivine Stewart (12.1 points per game).

“They’re a tough team to key in on just a certain guy,” Spoonhoour said. “There are a lot of teams you can do that against — this isn’t one of those teams.”

The Cougars have seven other players who are averaging at least seven points per game.

“Any one of their players can jump up and get on you,” Spoonhour said. “You can’t relax on any of them.”

Eastern is on a four-game OVC losing streak, with its last conference win coming on Feb. 6 against Tennessee-Martin.

Coincidentally, the Panthers are surrendering an average of 80 points per game during their OVC losing streak.

But the Panthers are also coming off an 82-64 home win against Chicago State Monday – a game they used to hone in on what they wanted to adjust before visiting Edwardsville.

“We needed to have a huge week of just feeling good about ourselves, starting with two good practices and then play Chicago State as well as we can,” Spoonhour said. “Win or lose we needed feel good going into Saturday.”

Well, Eastern won.

“We feel good,” Spoonhour said.

Anthony Catezone can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].