Junior center Jake Byrne said four months ago Eastern’s ninth-place pre-season Ohio Valley Conference ranking gave the team something to prove.

“I think it’s a good thing to look at and realize that we need to step it up,” Byrne said at the time.

The 6-foot-8 Byrne backed up those words with his performance Thursday night in Jacksonville, Ala.

Byrne scored a career-high 28 points and the Panthers, thanks to the help of a Nick Smith layup that didn’t go in with 1.3 seconds left and JSU down three, kept their OVC Tournament chances alive with a 69-65 win.

Tennessee State beat Morehead State 62-44, which is exactly what Eastern needed to happen.

Now the Panthers’ postseason chances all come down to Saturday.

If Eastern wins at Samford, Morehead loses at Austin Peay and JSU beats Southeast Missouri at SEMO, Eastern makes the conference tournament.

But the Panthers wouldn’t even have postseason aspirations if it weren’t for the play of Byrne.

“He got out there and made his first few shots and got to feeling good,” Eastern head coach Mike Miller said. “He made some big baskets for us.”

The biggest non-basket, for both teams, came in the form of Smith’s layup that stayed on the rim, in between where the rim connects to the backboard, with 1.3 seconds left and did not go in.

Ousmane Cisse fouled Smith on the play, and if the shot had gone in, along with Smith’s free throw attempt, the game would have been tied at 67.

Miller said he’d never seen something like that happen in a game.

“I’ve seen it happen in practice and in open gyms and things like that,” he said. “I just knew, when that happened and he went up, I heard the whistle, that that ball was going to sit and drop in. I was just waiting for it to drop through the net. For whatever reason, it stuck up there for once.”

Smith missed his first free throw and made the second one, giving Eastern a 67-65 lead with 1.3 seconds left.

JSU fouled Byrne before the ball came inbounds, and Byrne made two free throws to give Eastern the win.

Byrne started out strong, hitting his first three shots of the game and finished the first half with eight points. Junior forward Bobby Catchings, who finished with 17 points, added seven points in the first half. The duo had to sit for an extended part of the first half with two fouls each, but Eastern went into halftime with JSU tied at 29.

Byrne came out even more in rhythm in the second half, scoring Eastern’s first 11 points.

Still, Byrne’s scoring couldn’t push Eastern out in front early in the second half, and JSU led 48-42 with less than 13 minutes to play.

Eastern answered with a 9-0 run to grab a 51-48 lead. The game was a back-and-froth battle the rest of the game, with neither team leading by more than four in a game that had 15 lead changes.

Byrne gave Eastern the lead for good by making one of two free throws with 54 seconds to play to put the Panthers ahead 65-64.