Eagles, Jois finally get it rolling in opener

Maybe the 8 a.m. start was just a few ticks of the clock too early and the caffeine hadn't kicked in.

But once it all came together there was no stopping the Eastern Washington University men's basketball team, which breezed to an 86-62 nonconference victory over the Texas Southern University Tigers last Friday morning, Nov. 14, at Reese Court.

The game, which tipped off just after 8 a.m. and earned the distinction of being the first Division I college game played in the nation, drew a crowd of 1,623 who either played hooky from work or skipped their early EWU classes.

This is the second time an EWU sports team became the first in the country to open its season. On Aug. 23, Eastern became the first college football team to play a game in 2014 in a contest at Roos Field versus Sam Houston State University.

Fans were treated not only to an entertaining basketball game where junior Venky Jois overcame a slow start to lead the Eagles with 22 points, or Tyler Harvey's rain from 3-point range, but also breakfast and promotional bedroom slippers, too.

The game also marked the start of head coach Jim Hayford's fourth season at Eastern, one that has plenty of high hopes attached to a team picked high in the preseason Big Sky Conference polls.

"What I loved was our defense sustained us," Hayford said of his team's curious start where they shot just 34.5 percent in the opening 20 minutes and scored just one 2-point basket, from Drew Brandon, who also contributed five of the Eagles' 16 defensive rebounds.

Jois was zero for just about everything in the first half. He was 0 for 6 in his field goal shooting, 0 for 1 from 3-point range and 0 for 2 at the free throw line.

But after the halftime break Jois was on fire, scoring 12 of Eastern's points in a 24-6 run that saw the Eagles expand a slim 32-30 halftime lead to 20 at 56-36 with 11 minutes, 15 seconds remaining in the game.

"Yes, he turned it around," Hayford said. "That was one of his best and one of his worst halves, that's for sure."

Eastern outscored the Houston-based Tigers 54-32 in the second half.

But the Aussie wasn't finished as in a span of less than 3 minutes starting at 10:20 Jois added another eight points as the Eagles led 70-43.

While Jois struggled mightily in the first half, Harvey picked the Eagles up by scoring the first nine Eastern points, keeping them close at 11-9 by the 12:31 mark.

The Tigers' Tonnie Collier, helped lead his team on a 16-9 run that gave them a 26-18 lead with 5:34 to play in the opening half, scoring nine of his game-high 23 points. The rest, however, belonged to the Eagles who finished on a 14-4 run.

Eastern's two seniors, Parker Kelly with 12 points and Brandon with 10, rounded out the Eagles in double figures. Brandon, the Eagles' point guard, was an assist shy of a triple-double as he also pitched in 12 rebounds, an effort that drew praise from his coach.

"He'd been hobbled, and (was) fighting through some injuries," Hayford said. "Once he got through the jitters he was in attack mode the second half."

Kyle Reid, a junior college transfer, made his Eastern debut and while failing to score, pulled down eight rebounds, seven on the defensive end.

"I thought he gave us great interior punch in the second half," Hayford said.

For the game, Eastern recovered well from their slow start finishing with an even 50 percent on 32 of 64 shooting from the field, this while easily accomplishing the goal of holding opponents to under 40 percent on field goals Friday, allowing TSU to 30 percent on 18 of 60 shooting from the field.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].