Both Eastern men's, women's basketball must fill big holes

Both the Eastern Washington men's and women's basketball teams have big shoes and roles to fill. Each needs to replace their program's all-time leading scorer.

For the Eagle men that is Bogdan Bliznyuk who was the league MVP and an honorable All-American selection last season, finishing with 2,169 points in his career. Bliznyuk set the record that was held for just one year by Venky Jois.

There will not be a player with the last name of Hodgins on the Eagles' roster for the first time since the 2010-11 season for the EWU women. Hayley Hodgins played from 2011 to 2015 and set the then all-time Eastern Washington scoring record with 1,862 points. In 2014, little sister Delaney Hodgins came along and during the 2017-18 season broke Hayley's record with 2,120 career points.

Both the Eastern men and women see action at Reese Court over the next several weeks. The men meet the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Nov. 16 and either Morehead State or the University of Missouri-Kansas City Nov. 17. The Eagle women host Utah, Nov. 21.

Upcoming game schedules for both teams can be found in Sports Week.

EWU Men

Eastern returns seven letterwinners from the 2017-18 team, including four starters.

"The Big Sky will be good again - it's really talented from top to bottom," second-year EWU coach Shantay Legans said. "So it's going to be a fight for us."

Under Legans, the Eagles closed the 2017-18 season with a 20-15 overall record and 13-5 in Big Sky play. Eastern made its fourth-straight national postseason appearance when the team competed in the 2018 College Basketball Invitational (CBI).

Montana is the consensus favorite, but the Grizzlies are just one of several league championship contenders Eastern will face in the 2018-19 season. The Eagles were picked to finish fourth behind defending champion Montana, Weber State and Northern Colorado in the Big Sky Conference preseason polls announced on Oct. 18 by the league office.

The transition to life without Bliznyuk started in the spring, and Legans likes the potential of his veteran team. The returning players include honorable mention All-Big Sky Conference forward Mason Peatling, who Legans thinks has a chance to average a double-double in league play if not for the entire season.

"We are going to play a lot different, so we need guys to step up," Legans said. "We are trying to get these guys to understand their primary roles early."

Cody Benzel and Ty Gibson return for their senior seasons. Benzel has started 27 games in his career, averaging 4.9 points per game. Gibson has started 38 games and averages 4.5 points per game.

Both players are long-range threats, with Benzel ranking ninth in school history with 145 3-pointers, shooting at 41.9 percent. Gibson has made 119, 3-pointers for 40.2 percent accuracy.

Add in BYU transfer Steven Beo, and the Eagles will have three proven shooters. Beo played in 31 games as a freshman for BYU in 2016-17 after averaging over 27 points as a junior and 26-plus as a senior at Richland High School.

Benzel and Gibson, as well as forward Jesse Hunt, were named to the NABC Honors Court for the 2017-18 school year. Gibson and Hunt have also earned Big Sky All-Academic honors.

Sophomore Luka Vulikic started Eastern's first eight games at point guard in the 2017-18 season before a foot ailment resulted in him redshirting. He averaged 7.1 points as a freshman for the Eagles.

True freshman Jack Perry stepped up, starting 27 of the 35 games he played. He finished with 6.8 points per game, while sinking 56-of-130 3-pointers for 43.1 percent.

Also back at guard is wing Jacob Davison. He finished second on the team in scoring last season with 242 total points (7.1 per game), adding 94 rebounds, 27 steals and 11 blocked shots. He also sank 27-of-65 3-pointers, an average of 41.5 percent.

Junior college transfer Tyler Kidd and redshirt freshman Kim Aiken Jr. were in the program a year ago as redshirts. Newcomers include highly-touted true freshman Elijah Jackson out of Chief Sealth High School in Seattle, as well as Californians Austin Fadal and Mike Meadows. Sophomore walk-on Joshua Thomas rounds out the guards.

EWU Women

Head coach Wendy Schuller is entering her 18th season at Eastern Washington where the Eagles return three starters from a year ago. They have eight returning players, including four seniors.

The Eagles finished 17-14 overall a season ago with a 12-6 mark in conference play. Eastern earned a No. 3 seed and a first-round bye at the conference tournament. The season came to a quick conclusion with a loss to Portland State in the Big Sky quarterfinals.

Eastern was selected to finish fifth in the preseason media poll and seventh in the coaches' poll this season. But the Eagles constantly defy those early expectations. Last year Eastern was selected sixth and seventh and finished third. The Idaho Vandals were picked to finish first in both polls.

Although there isn't a Hodgins sister on the roster, that doesn't concern Schuller. "It's kind of weird to not have a Hodgins on the team," she said.

"Delaney had an unbelievable career, but players graduate and move on," Schuller said. "Now we're focused on this team and this senior class and it's going really well. We have a lot of players who will step in to a scoring roll that maybe didn't do that last year."

Violet Kapri Morrow is prepped to take over the scoring for the Eagles at guard. The senior averaged 14.7 points per game last year, including an average of 17.1 in Big Sky Conference play. She was a third-team All-Big Sky selection last season and had a string of 11 consecutive double-digit performances and 20 games with at least 20 points.

Uriah Howard was fourth on the team in scoring with 8.9 points per game while shooting 40.5-percent behind the arc. Brisbane, Australia native, sophomore Brittany Klaman started 24 games last year and averaged 4.4 points per contest.

Also back for the Eagles are seniors Alissa Sealby and Amira Chandler. Sealby, a forward, averaged 3.2 points off of the bench last year. Chandler, Schuller thinks, is poised for a big year. Baylee Rexing is also back for her senior season in addition to sophomore Cailyn Francis.

The Eagles welcome eight newcomers to the 2018-19 squad, including seven freshmen and one junior transfer.

Leya DePriest (Palmer, Alaska / Wasilla HS) comes to Cheney after two seasons at Denver where she appeared in 35 games. "Leya is eligible to play immediately and gives us great size and intensity," Schuller said. "She plays really hard and will give us some paint presence that we can use."

Tatiana Reese (East Menlo Park, Calif. / Woodside Priory School), Jessica McDowell-White (Brisbane, Australia), Tessa Burke (Missoula, Mont. / Loyola Sacred Heart HS), Bella Cravens (Laie, Hawai'I / Maryknoll School), Milly Knowles (Cumbria, England), Trinity Golder (Sandpoint, Idaho / Sandpoint HS) and Grace Kirscher (Sandpoint, Idaho / Sandpoint HS) round out the newcomers and all hope to make immediate impacts.

"Jessica McDowell-White has been really solid for us at the guard spot, she's going to be a special player. Grace Kirscher has looked really good too," Schuller said of her young group. "I'm really pleased with all of our youngsters, they're grasping what we want to do and figuring it out quickly."

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].