By PAUL DELANEY
Staff Reporter
A solid start allowed Eastern Washington to withstand a faltering finish and claim a 69-62 Big Sky Conference men’s basketball victory over the University of Idaho Dec. 30 in Moscow at the Cowan Spectrum.
Jacob Wiley had a career-high 23 points and fellow senior Felix Von Hofe added 22 more as the Eagles (1-0 Big Sky, 9-5 overall) built a 39-25 first half lead and held off the Victor Sanders-led Vandals. Sanders’ 32-point night left him the only Idaho player to reach double figures.
The Eastern win ended a three-game losing streak.
“The two seniors really came through,” Eastern head coach Jim Hayford said. “That’s what you have to do in conference play — rely on your seniors.”
Eastern, which hasn’t played at home since Dec. 13, hosts Montana State tonight (Jan. 5) at 6:05 p.m. and Montana two days later on Jan. 7 at 1:05 p.m.
Eastern led by as many as 22 at 60-38 with 6 minutes, 50 seconds remaining, but Sanders sparked the Vandals, who closed to within five at 62-57 with 1:57 to play on his jump shot. Wiley hit the front half of two free throws with 1:43 to play and Von Hofe’s 3 as the clock hit 59 seconds more-or-less sealed it.
“It was a good thing we built that big lead because we were leaking water coming into the harbor,” Hayford said. “But the ship held up and we are going back to Cheney with a great road win.”
Wiley, a graduate transfer from Lewis -Clark State in Lewiston, Idaho, finished a rebound away from a double-double, but had five blocked shots. Von Hofe hit 6 of 11 shots from 3-point range.
Trailing 12-10 just 5:01 in, the Eagles had five-straight points, following with a 9-0 run to take a 24-14 lead with 9:34 left. Later, Ty Gibson nailed a 3-pointer, Cody Benzel hit another triple and then Gibson followed with a four-point play to give EWU a 34-20 lead with 4:47 left.
The Eagles held Idaho to 31 percent shooting from the field – a season-best effort and 26 percent in the first half. Eastern also had 10 blocked shots to equal its season high. Idaho had stretches of nine-straight misses and two others of six-straight as Eastern built a lead of 44-27 lead early in the second half.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
Reader Comments(0)