Eagles hold off Vandals down stretch for 89-86 win

An 11-1 run, fueled by 3-point shooting in the game's final eight minutes broke a 67-67 tie and Eastern Washington held on in the final minute to score an 89-86 Big Sky Conference basketball victory over Idaho last Saturday at the Cowan Spectrum in Moscow.

Back-to-back 3-point baskets from Tyler Harvey with 7 minutes, 54 seconds to play, and a long range shot from Parker Kelly at the 6:16 mark, coupled with a pair of Kelly free throws put the Eagles up 75-67.

"We got some really good looks early in the second half that we didn't make, then we started to make them," EWU head coach Jim Hayford said.

Idaho's Sekou Wiggs broke the run hitting one of two free throws at 4:50, but Sir Washington's 3 with 4:29 remaining gave Eastern its largest lead, 78-68. They held on for a first-ever league win over the Vandals since 1996.

"Sir's was a big 3 for us," Hayford said.

"The final score doesn't surprise me, we knew it was going to be a very close game between two good offensive teams," Hayford said.

Eastern led by eight, 84-76 with 1:38 to play on a pair of Drew Brandon free throws. But then Idaho's 3-point shooting, which was 5 of 9 in the second half, found its range in the final two minutes.

A pair of 3-pointers from Mike Scott were sandwiched around one from Connor Hill and the Vandals had climbed back to within four at 86-82 with 1:06 remaining.

The remainder of the game's scoring came from the free throw line where Harvey got a pair with 23 seconds left to give Eastern an 88-84 lead. Ty Egbert sunk a pair of foul shots for the Vandals with 14 seconds to play making it a one-possession game.

Bogdan Bliznyuk knocked down the second of two free throws with 10 seconds to play, forcing Idaho into trying a 3-pointer that Scott missed as time ran out.

In a game that was offensive in nature, it was some key defense that delivered the win, Hayford said.

"We forced Mike Scott, who is a very good player, into four turnovers and that was probably the difference," Hayford said. The Eagles held Scott and Hill to a combined 11-of-26 shooting from the field. Hill led the Vandals with 16 points.

Eastern shot nearly 53 percent from the field as a team, while Idaho was not far behind at 48.4. Eastern got 15 points off just nine Idaho turnovers. The Vandals held a 35-30 edge in rebounding.

Harvey, the leading scorer and 3-point shooter in NCAA Division I, finished with 23 points to lead all scorers in the game. Venky Jois had 16 points – eight in each half. He also had six blocked shots.

Bliznyuk came off the bench to score 13 points while Brandon and Kelly each had 11. Brandon added nine assists to fall just short of another double-double.

The Eagles led early 13-2, but the Vandals used a 9-0 run to take its first lead of the game late in the first half and led by one at halftime, 42-41.

The win gives Eastern a 3-0 conference record (12-4 overall) and the Eagles moved up to No. 13 in the most recent collegeinsider.com Mid Major poll heading into road games Jan. 15 at Portland State (2-2 Big Sky, 8-6 overall) and Sacramento State (3-1, 9-6) Saturday. Both contests tip at 7:05 p.m.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].