Had the finish had been like their start, the Eastern Washington men’s basketball team would be sitting pretty as one of just two of the Big Sky Conference’s undefeated teams.
But the Eagles couldn’t replicate the quick 7-0 lead they took at the start of their game with Montana last Saturday. Instead they surrendering the game’s final six points, all from the free throw line, in a 65-59 loss to the Grizzlies that ruined their undefeated record at home and is now 8-1.
The visit from the Montana schools did produce a win last Thursday, 82-64 over Montana State.
With 52 seconds remaining, the Eagles felt they had forced Walter Wright into a traveling call, but instead, Sir Washington was called for a foul and Wright made both free throws to give the Griz a 60-59 lead. A missed 3-pointer by Bogdan Bliznyuk with 33 seconds to play was followed by two more UM free throws, then Felix Von Hofe missed a 3-pointer with 13 seconds remaining, followed by two more Griz free throws.
“We thought we played some really good defense and forced a travel, but it wasn’t and was a foul on us,” Eastern head coach Jim Hayford said. “They made two free throws and we executed and got the look we wanted from our best player, but it didn’t go down.”
Bliznyuk scored 21 points and had six rebounds and six assists to lead the Eagles, with former Grizzly Jacob Wiley finishing with 10 points and a season-high 14 rebounds against Montana.
On Thursday, Wiley scored a career-high 25 points with a near triple-double against MSU, adding 10 rebounds and seven assists. Von Hofe had 19 points with five three-pointers and Jesse Hunt came off the bench to score a career-high 13 points.
After the Bobcats’ Tyler Hall single-handedly got his team back into the game, Eastern surged again in the second half with a 9-0 run to turn a one-point margin into 10 points with 8:01 to play. Bliznyuk started the run with a 3-pointer, then Wiley and Hunt closed it with three-point plays. The Bobcats went 3:59 without a field goal, and could come no closer than eight the rest of the way.
The Eagles (2-1 Big Sky, 10-6 overall) meet Idaho State tonight (Jan. 12) in Pocatello and then Weber State on Jan. 14 in Ogden, Utah.
See a photo gallery from the event here.
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