Eagles never let down after Indiana victory
Eastern Washington's "OG" Miljkovic blocks a shot from Eastern Oregon's Bryan McGriff in last Sunday's Eagle win.
Eastern Washington followed their latest program-defining basketball win, that 88-86 victory Nov. 24 at Indiana that ended the Hoosiers' 43-game home court nonconference winning streak, with two more victories last week and are off to their best start in nearly 40 years.
The Eagles collected wins, 81-60 versus Northern Kentucky, Nov. 26 and 104-78 over Eastern Oregon, Nov. 30 both at Reese Court, improving to 6-1 on the season.
The win Sunday versus the visitors from La Grande, Ore. gives the Eagles their best start since becoming an NCAA Division I program 32 years ago.
The victory allowed EWU head coach Jim Hayford to reach a milestone 300 victories in 16 seasons as a collegiate head coach. He currently is 300-138.
"I have been fortunate to coach really good players," Hayford said of reaching the victory plateau. "Players win games, not coaches - coaches put players in a position to win games."
Behind the career-afternoon of Venky Jois who scored 38 points, Eastern shot a blistering 56 percent from the field and 90 percent from the free throw line, hitting 26-29 from the stripe.
Eastern led from start to finish and were up by as many as 24 points in the second half after leading by 53-45 at intermission.
The Mountaineers, an NAIA school, stayed with the Eagles throughout the first half and were tied 27-27 at one point. That's when Tyler Harvey scored the next seven straight and Jois delivered a jam to up the Eagle lead to 11 with four minutes remaining in the first half.
Harvey finished with 23 points, a total matched by Ognjen Miljkovic who had a season-high 23 points on 10 of 11 shooting from the field. Parker Kelly was the fourth Eagle in double figures with 10 points.
As a team, Eastern shot 60 percent from the field in the second half and 56 for the game. EOU hit 46 percent for the game. Bryan McGriff finished the game with 32 and De'Sean Mattox 27.
Against Northern Kentucky (2-3), Eastern scored the game's first five points, jumped to a 37-20 first half lead and cruised from there.
Harvey had his third-straight 20-point performance by finishing with an even 20. Jois had 14 points and four blocked shots. Miljkovic finished with 14 points. Drew Brandon had 11 points. Felix Von Hofe led Eastern players off the bench with nine points on 3-of-4 shooting from 3-point range.
Eastern, 4-0 at home, will play its next five games on the road, starting Dec. 6 at Seattle University. The Eagles won't return home again until facing Lewis-Clark State Dec. 22 at 6:05 p.m. at Reese Court.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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