Eagles come alive late, top Vandals in OT

In a game of crazy back and forth runs, Eastern Washington had the one that counted the most against the University of Idaho last Saturday at Reese Court.

Eastern trailed by 11 points with just 1 minute, 33 seconds to play in regulation. But from there the Eagles outscored the Vandals 16-5, the final points a rim-circling layup from Drew Brandon that tied the game at 86-86 as the horn sounded.

That forced overtime where the Eagles emerged after five additional minutes with a completely improbable 98-95 Big Sky Conference men's basketball victory that sent most of the crowd of 3,017 home happy.

Eastern improved to 7-1 in conference play and are 16-5 overall and a perfect 11-0 this season at home. The Eagles head to Montana to face the Grizzlies tonight (Feb. 5) and then Montana State Saturday at 1 p.m.

Following a steal and a foul, Idaho's Sekou Wiggs knocked down a pair of free throws putting the Vandals ahead 81-70 with 1:33 on the clock. Earlier, with 8:29 to play, Idaho led by 17.

After sophomore Ognjen Miljkovic had his 3-point try fall off the rim, true freshman Bogdan Bliznyuk got the rebound and scored a layup and a foul shot with 1:21 to go. After a Brandon steal, Felix Von Hofe followed with a 3 and suddenly in just 20 seconds Eastern trimmed the lead to 81-76.

Wiggs went back to the line with 53 seconds to play hitting the front-end of a pair of foul shots, but missing the second making it 82-76.

In the final minute the Vandals (3-5, 8-11) would go to the line for 10 free throws and make just five. As a team coming into the game, Idaho was nearly a 70-percent team at the line, but 57 percent Saturday.

Miljkovic would complete a 3-point play with 46 seconds to play closing it to 82-79, Idaho. Over the next 18 seconds, seemingly an eternity, six free throws produced three points and an 84-80 Idaho lead. Miljkovic then ended the run of free throws, connecting on a 3-pointer with 20 seconds remaining trimming it to 84-83.

Idaho's Arkady Mkrtychyan had a chance to make Eastern's chore much tougher had he hit both free throws. But he too only got one, and the Vandals led 86-84 with six seconds remaining. Brandon took the inbounds pass end to end to tie it.

Bliznyuk, who led the Eagles with 21 points and added 15 rebounds for a double-double, scored the first five points of overtime and the final two with 12 seconds remaining for the final margin. But Mike Scott, who led the Vandals, and all scorers with 23 points, had his shot blocked by Venky Jois, back after missing three games with a sprained ankle.

"This is as big a win as I've had at Eastern in my three-and-a-half years," EWU head coach Jim Hayford said.

Despite the memorable finish, for much of the game the Eagles gave the crowd heartburn. Eastern went long spans where they could not find the basket, even with laser guidance technology.

In one nearly 6-minute period where the Vandals forged that 17-point lead, the Eagles scored just five points.

But none was more damaging than the final 93 seconds of regulation and the first 16 of overtime where Eastern outscored Idaho 19-5.

Over the final 2:05 Idaho was held without a field goal and committed three turnovers. For the game Idaho shot just shy of 54 percent from the field and Eastern a tad over 47 percent.

On a day when the nation's scoring leader, Eastern's Tyler Harvey, was hobbled with a thigh bruise suffered in the first half and limited to just 13 points, his teammates picked up the slack. Harvey sat out the final 7:31.

Brandon had 18 points, 10 rebounds and his nine assists put him one shy of EWU's first-ever triple-double. Miljkovic had 17 points and Parker Kelly 14.

"What I really love about this game for my team is we were playing without Tyler, and Venky is on half a leg, and our guys showed tremendous will and guts," Hayford said.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].