Even with the Panthers 82-76 victory Thursday at Jacksonville State, there chances of making the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament just got more confusing.

That’s because Eastern Kentucky pulled out a win over Austin Peay, meaning the Panthers need a win and some more help on Saturday.

The Panthers best hope remains in a victory at Samford, followed by a loss by Eastern Kentucky to Tennessee State or an Eastern Kentucky loss plus an Austin Peay loss to Morehead State.

If this sounds confusing, it’s because it is. In order for all of the aforementioned possibilities to take place, the Panthers have to win.

“It’s as simple as that,” Eastern head coach Brady Sallee said. “We know first and foremost we have to win. It’s not something you wanna be in the middle of, but we’re realistic about our chances.”

For Eastern (10-18, 7-12 OVC) to have any realistic chance, the Panthers had to beat a Jacksonville State team that was missing Courtney Slaughter – the Gamecocks leading scorer.

The absence of Slaughter, who left Jacksonville State (7-21, 4-15) this week for undisclosed reasons, created a huge hole for the Gamecocks and a big advantage for the Panthers.

“They’re a different basketball team without her,” Sallee said. “The only thing I was worried about was our team sleepwalking. When another team’s best player is out, the other team tends to relax. We didn’t do that.”

The Panthers did anything, but relax, especially in the first half where Jessica Huffman scored 16 of her 19 points in helping Eastern gain a 44-33 halftime lead.

Jacksonville State came out shooting in the second half, going on a 14-4 run to cut the Panthers lead to 48-47.

Instead of folding down the stretch like the Panthers have done so often this season, the Panthers grabbed their biggest lead of the game at 73-60. During the Panthers 19-9 run, Ashley Thomas scored eight points to help the Panthers assume control.

Sallee points to Jacksonville State’s lack of help defense in letting the Panthers beat them off the dribble.

“They weren’t going to help a lot on our drives,” Sallee said. “When we’re the aggressor, we usually have pretty good outcomes.”

Most of the aggressiveness came from Ellen Canale. The sophomore followed her season-high 17-point performance against Murray State with 13 points and nine rebounds.

“Her confidence is real high right now,” Sallee said.

While Canale ignited the Panthers offense, Eastern got strong contributions from Rachel Galligan (18 points, 11 rebounds), who did most of her damage from the foul line (10-14).

The Panthers face a Samford team on Saturday that beat Eastern 63-41 three weeks ago in Charleston.