The Eastern men’s basketball team almost saw a season-worst collapse before ending its three-game losing streak with a 56-48 win at Jacksonville State Saturday.

Eastern had shot 0-of-5 from the field in the final four minutes.

The Panthers saw an 11-point lead dwindle down to just a three points in a four-minute span, as they led the Gamecocks 51-48 with 34 second remaining.

“If we would have played the way we did in the comeback we would never have had the problem,” Gamecock forward Teraes Clemmons said in a press release.

Clemmons scored all of his team-high 12 points in the second half.

But Eastern responded at the free throw line, making 5-of-6 in the last 34 seconds of regulation, including four by guard Alex Austin.

Meanwhile, Jacksonville State missed three 3-pointers in those 34 seconds.

The Panthers dared the Gamecocks to shoot from 3-point range, so they did. But, it was not the least bit effective.

The Gamecocks shot 4-of-25 from behind the arc for just 16 percent. Eastern barely looked at the 3-point shot, making one of six attempts, while shooting 56 percent from the rest of the field.

“When they come on your court and shoot 50 percent and you shoot 33, and they only shoot six 3s and you shoot 25 and they pound you on the backboards — they’re tougher than you,” Jacksonville State coach James Green said.

The Panthers pounded the backboards with a 35-25 advantage, while also outscoring the Gamecocks 30-18 in points in the paint.

Eastern was led by 6-foot-8, 245-pound forward Chris Olivier, who scored 10 of his game-high 15 points inside the paint, with eight points in the paint coming in the second half.

“This one strictly came down to their toughness versus our toughness and they were a heck of a lot better at it than we were,” Green said.

The Gamecocks did manage to cut an 18-point deficit to four points with 7:44 in the second half, using an 18-4 run in nine minutes.

But all that comeback did was prolong the Gamecocks’ shortcomings, as both of Jacksonville State’s comeback attempts were thwarted and built back into Panther leads by nearly double digits.

Eastern snapped a three-game losing streak of its own, while also snapping Jacksonville State’s six-game home win streak and 14-game win streak against west division foes.

The Panthers improved to 5-11 on the season with a 2-3 mark in the Ohio Valley Conference. The Gamecocks fell to 8-12 overall and also 2-3 in the OVC.

Eastern returns to action at 7 p.m. Thursday in Lantz Arena to host Murray State.

Anthony Catezone can be reached at 581-2812 or ajcatezone@eiu.edu.