Sports Briefs

Eagles add Serbian Luka Vulikic to basketball roster

Luka Vulikic, a 6-foot-5, 190-pound guard from Belgrade, Serbia, has signed a letter of intent to attend Eastern Washington University and play for the men’s basketball program, head coach Jim Hayford announced April 13.

Pronounced “Lou-kah” “Vool-ih-kick,” he adds to a recruiting class that includes early signees Mason Peatling and Jacob Davidson. Eastern had just three seniors on its 2015-16 roster — including a graduate transfer at point guard — as the Eagles finished 18-16 and advanced to the second round of the College Basketball Invitational.

A former member of the Serbian U16 National Team, Vulikic is coming off a 2015-16 season competing in the Serbian U19 National League for Jagodina. The previous year, he played for Mega Vizura in the U19 National League.

He led his Serbian team to a third-place finish in 2015 in the Euroleague Next Generation Tournament in Belgrade, earning all-tournament honors in the process.

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1976-77 Eagle hoops earn EWU Hall of Fame nod

The 1976-77 Eastern Washington State College men’s basketball team — dubbed the “Screamin’ Eagles” by their coach — will be the 14th team inducted in the Eastern Washington University Athletics Hall of Fame when ceremonies take place Oct. 1.

Appropriately, the breakfast ceremony for the Hall of Fame’s 16th induction class is expected to take place at the EWU Special Events Pavilion and Reese Court, which was in its second year of existence when the ‘76-77 squad had its historic season.

Led by Hall of Fame coach Jerry Krause, the team finished 25-4 to record what is still the second-best winning percentage (.862) in school history, and won a share of the Evergreen Conference and NAIA District I regular season titles. The team had only two seniors, but they were legendary and record-breaking and included Hall of Fame All-America forward Ron Cox and talented point guard Ed Waters. Eastern also featured an eventual All-American in Paul Hungenberg and a high-scoring transfer in Mike Heath (University of Washington).