Eastern men stumble at Southern Methodist, 77-68

Eastern Washington found out what it's like to really play catch–up in a basketball game.

Facing a formerly No. 22 ranked Southern Methodist University (2-2) team that had just finished a two-game road trip winless - including a 72-56 loss at Gonzaga Nov. 17 - the Mustangs were hot from the tipoff en route to a 77-68 nonconference win over the Eagles.

"They came out and looked like a team that was upset they had lost their last two games," EWU head coach Jim Hayford said.

Eastern (3-1) had played two relatively easy outings in dominating wins over Utah Valley State 75-50, Nov. 17 and 95-34 against NAIA Walla Walla University, Nov. 19. They led early, and big in each.

The Eagles faced what they had dished out against the Mustangs who made their first nine shots. From there on Eastern held SMU to 19-of-48 shooting from the field for 40 percent.

Before a sellout crowd of 6,852 in Dallas, Texas at SMU's Moody Coliseum, Eastern stayed with SMU through much of the opening half, leading just one time, 10-9 on a Venky Jois free throw with 17 minutes, 25 seconds to play.

Eastern would trail by 12 at 24-12 at the 13:09 mark but closed to within 24-21 on a Felix Von Hofe 3-pointer exactly at the midway point of the opening half. The Eagles went to the locker room down 43-35 at the break.

Eastern would get the first bucket of the second half and trailed by six, but SMU went on a 13-2 run to lead 56-39 with 14:41 to play. The Eagles would begin to chip away at the Mustangs' lead, before making one final push.

Back-to-back 3s from Tyler Harvey, the last with 1:33 to play, trimmed SMU's lead to 71-66, but SMU closed out the win at the free throw line with a perfect 6 for 6 effort.

Harvey, who was this week's Big Sky Conference co-Player of the Week for his performances in EWU's first two games, finished with a game-high 24 points. However, he didn't make his first 3-pointer until 12:49 remained.

Jois had his first double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Parker Kelly added 12 points. Eastern shot 41.7 percent from the field, but only 30.6 from 3-point range and a dismal 46.7 from the free throw line.

Eastern had troubles defending the Mustang trio of Nic Moore (22 points) Keith Frazier (17) and Yakick Moreira (13) as the trio scored 52 of SMU's 77 points.

iously a glaring weakness we have to get better at."

Following a game this past Monday at the University of Indiana in Bloomington, the Eagles returned home for a pair of games versus Northern Kentucky, Wednesday Nov. 26 and Eastern Oregon on Nov. 30 at 2:05 p.m. in a doubleheader with the Eagle' women who play at 4:35 versus Central Washington.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].