Sports Briefs

Big match-up with Weber State on tap at Reese

The stretch run is all about playing your best when it counts the most.

And the Eastern Washington University men’s basketball team has a chance at forging a second-place tie with defending Big Sky Conference champion and league favorite Weber State when the Eagles host the Wildcats tonight (Thursday, Feb. 23) at 6:05 p.m. at Reese Court.

On Saturday, Eastern closes out the regular season at home versus Idaho State at 1:05 p.m. and will honor seniors Felix Von Hofe, Jacob Wiley and Julian Harrell, who is injured, in pre-game ceremonies.

Just four games remain in the regular season for Eastern, prior to the 11-team conference tournament.

The Eagles have won seven of their last nine games, and hope to continue their winning ways versus a WSU team which fell out of first place last week with a 77-68 home loss to North Dakota.

Among the Eastern victories is a win last Friday over Idaho at Reese Court, a contest that began a three-game home stand.

Using runs of 14-0 and 11-0 to establish leads, Eastern won 77-67 before a season-best crowd of 2,821 as the Eagles improved to 12-1 at home. Bogdan Bliznyuk finished with a game-high 25 points to go along with 13 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season. Sir Washington made three 3’s to finish with 17 points, and Felix Von Hofe and Ty Gibson each had a pair of 3’s to finish with 10 points apiece.

“We are playing our best basketball and I expect us to get even better this coming week,” Eastern head coach Jim Hayford said. “We need to defend our home court.”

The last seven meetings between the Eagles and Wildcats have all been decided by eight points or less.

“This should be an outstanding basketball game as we play one of the elite programs of the conference,” Hayford said. His team was edged 70-67 by Weber on Jan. 14 in Ogden, Utah and 79-77 last year at home.

See a photo gallery from the event here.

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Road trip continues for Eastern women following Idaho loss

Delaney Hodgins moved into sixth on the Eastern Washington University women’s basketball all-time scoring list last Saturday, but her 14-point effort would not be enough to lift the Eagles to a victory, as they fell at Idaho, 78-51.

Eastern continues its road trip at Weber State tonight (Feb. 23) and then at Idaho State Saturday, whom the Eagles are currently tied with in Big Sky Standings with 9-5 records. With the Idaho loss, the Eagles are 14-11 overall.

The Eagles ran into a hot-shooting Vandal team on Saturday, as Idaho drilled 13 3-point field goals to snap a three-game regular season losing streak to the Eagles. UI opened the game up in the third quarter, as they hit five triples in the frame to turn a five-point lead at the half into a 20-point advantage heading into the fourth.

“They shot the ball extremely well, which we knew they were capable of doing,” head coach Wendy Schuller said. “They spread us out, and we didn’t do a good enough job at defending them (from behind the arc).”

Hodgins entered Saturday’s game needing just eight points to move past Vanessa Jones (1,290 points) for sixth on the EWU women’s basketball all-time scoring list. The Pasco, Wash. native would accomplish that feat in just two quarters, as a 3-point field goal gave the forward her 10th point of the game to surpass Jones.

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EWU football awards event is Saturday, Feb. 18

As the final send-off for 12 Eastern Washington University seniors and former head coach Beau Baldwin, the annual EWU football awards presentation will take place Saturday, Feb. 18 at 1 p.m. at Showalter Auditorium on the Cheney campus.

Cost is $15 per person in advance or $20 at the door, and includes hors d’oeuvres, video productions and highlights from the 2016 season. The event begins with a social hour at 1 p.m., followed by the awards program at 2 p.m.

Besides new head coach Aaron Best, former Eagle head coach Beau Baldwin will also be present at the award presentations. Baldwin, the new offensive coordinator at the University of California-Berkeley, will also be recognized at EWU’s basketball game versus Idaho on Friday, Feb. 17 at Reese Court.

Team awards will be presented and other accomplishments acknowledged, including recognition of the team’s 12 seniors on a squad that finished the 2016 season 12-2 overall and a perfect 8-0 in the Big Sky Conference. They lost in the semifinals of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs to Youngstown State.

The Eagles had their 11-game winning streak ended by the Penguins, who needed an improbable catch with one second left to pull out the 40-38 victory. EWU hadn’t lost since falling to five-time defending FCS champion North Dakota State 50-44 in overtime on Sept. 10. One week before that they knocked off Washington State of the Pac-12 Conference 45-42.

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