With just five seconds remaining, Eastern’s red-shirt sophomore James Hollowell fouled Tennessee State’s guard Chris Conner, while shooting a game-tying three-point shot.

“I was hurt, I couldn’t believed he called (the foul), I didn’t think I really hit him,” Hollowell said.

The Panthers were up 68-65 before the foul. Conner made the first two free throws; however, Eastern head coach Mike Miller called a timeout just before Conner shot the third free throw.

Miller said he did not call the timeout right away because they were not sure of how good a free-throw shooter Conner was.

On the third shot Conner hit the back of the rim and sophomore forward Shaun Pratl grabbed his fourth and most important rebound, Pratl was quickly fouled by TSU.

Pratl went to the free-throw line, shooting one and the bonus, he missed his first shot, the Tigers grabbed the rebound, but their first pass was tipped and the clock expired before they could get off a shot.

Senior guard Tyler Laser had 13 points, six rebounds and three steals. He said this was a big win for the Panthers.

“(The game) was physical, they were athletic, strong and fast,” Laser said. “It was just a fun game to play in.”

With the win Eastern improves its record to 3-4 on the year and 1-0 in the Ohio Valley Conference, while Tennessee State falls to 1-6 overall and 0-1 in the OVC.

The Panthers outplayed TSU in almost every statistical category. They controlled more rebounds, including a season-high 15 offensive rebounds, they had more points in the paint, points off turnovers, second chance and fast break points than the Tigers.

Hollowell scored a season-high 14 points to go along with six rebounds and two steals.

“I’m excited, I think we came out and played aggressive, we made a couple silly plays, but I think the effort overall was great from the whole team,” Hollowell said.

Miller said he thought this game might be close because of the two games last year (one went into triple-overtime and the other came down to one shot).

“Our games with (TSU) the last couple years have come down to the last play or the last shot,” Miller said.

Laser said he was happy with how the team played overall, but he was happier that the team was able to get its first conference win.

“We can still improve a little bit on our plays, we are not setting great screens, there are just little things that we need to improve on as the season goes on,” Laser said.

Miller said the Panthers did a lot of things well, but there is still work that needs to be done.

“We rebounded well against a very good rebounding team, we did some good things that we can build on,” Miller said.

The Panthers return to action Saturday in Lantz Arena against OVC opponent Austin Peay. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m.

Rob Mortell can be reached at 581-7944 or rdmortell@eiu.edu