The Panthers have been struggling of late and needed a strong weekend to show its talent.

The Eastern men’s basketball team pulled off back-to-back upsets against conference foes Morehead State Thursday and Eastern Kentucky Saturday.

Eastern snuck a victory from the jaw of defeat against Morehead State 76-75 Thursday in Lantz Arena.

Eagles’ senior forward Maze Stallworth gave his team a one-point advantage by hitting a three-pointer with 12.4 seconds left.

Eastern sophomore guard Jeremy Granger dribbled the ball up court and then lost the dribble while trying to pass it to junior guard Tyler Laser.

Luckily for the Panthers, the ball hit the ankle of an Eagles’ defender with 5.9 seconds left.

The next play, Eagles’ sophomore forward Steve Peterson stole the ball from Laser in the waning seconds and then frantically called a tim eout with one second left.

“We were looking for back screen for (freshman forward James Hollowell) and they didn’t set the back screen for him,” Laser said. “I was like ‘I was going to finish this right here.’ (Morehead State’s Steve Peterson) got me and then when he was calling timeout, I was so happy.”

However, Morehead State was out of time outs, meaning a technical foul was called against the Eagles and Eastern would get two free throws.

Laser said he was frustrated at himself with almost blowing the game. He then took his frustrations out at the line and sank two daggers for the victory.

“I was thinking of Stallworth hitting that three on me and I was thinking of the turnover,” Laser said. “I pretty much screwed us twice.”

Hollowell led the Panthers with 23 points while Laser and Granger added 16 and 10 points, respectively. Faried and Stallworth had 19 and 18 points.

On Saturday, Miller’s squad continued its winning ways with a 77-53 trouncing of Eastern Kentucky.

Laser began the game scoring the Panthers’ first eight points but then the team went cold hitting only 5-of-19.

Eastern bounced back, ending the first half shooting 9-of-11 to open up a 34-21 advantage.

The second half saw no mercy from the Panthers as they slashed their first four buckets to put the game away 45-25.

Miller said his team made adjustments from its 67-59 loss to the Colonels Jan. 14.

“They made plays,” Miller said. “The defense they play, the high 1-3-1 is a different defense that we see only when we play them. No one else in the league plays that or anyone else we play. We did a good job attacking that with our guards.”

Miller said he was impressed at how his team was able to guard Eastern Kentucky well and stave off seven three-point shots.

Laser led Eastern with 17 points while Hollowell had 16 points. The Panthers shot 54.7 percent from the field and outrebounded the Colonels 43-26.

Eastern (14-11, 8-7 Ohio Valley Conference) now is solely in fifth place in the OVC and only a half-game behind fourth place Austin Peay.

The Panthers’ next challenge will be against Tennessee Martin (4-21, 1-14 OVC) 7 p.m. Tuesday at Martin, Tenn.

Bob Bajek can be reached at 581-7944 or rtbajek@eiu.edu

Junior guard Curry McKinney attempts to make a pass while being double teamed by Eastern Kentucky defenders Saturday evening in Lantz Arena. (Chelsea Grady/The Daily Eastern News)

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