EWU's 2019-20 basketball schedule announced

The Eagles will once again be road-tested, but December’s miles will be significantly less.

While November is highlighted by long road trips, December features two short trips against a pair of NCAA Division I powerhouses and a trio of home games, as the 2019-20 Eastern Washington University men’s basketball schedule has been announced by third-year head coach Shantay Legans.

Eastern will play 11 non-conference opponents — including five at home — prior to the start of its Big Sky Conference schedule on Dec. 28. All but two of the opponents are NCAA Division I foes.

“We have a great preseason schedule coming up this year,” Legans said. “In November, we get to travel all over the country and test ourselves against some high-level programs. We return home in December and get over a month where we don’t leave the state of Washington, which will help us get some extra practices in and help keep our guys fresh. We’ll have five home games in that span to provide Eagle Nation a great opportunity to come see what we have.”

Eastern will play at Washington on Wednesday, Dec. 4, then three weeks later take on Gonzaga on Saturday, Dec. 21. While EWU has played the Huskies three times in the last six seasons, EWU hasn’t played the Bulldogs since Nov. 2011.

Both the Huskies and Bulldogs advanced to the NCAA Tournament in the 2018-19 season, with the Huskies finishing 27-9 overall and 15-3 in the Pac-12 Conference. Gonzaga was 33-4 and a perfect 16-0 in the West Coast Conference.

Three other teams EWU faces this season advanced to the Big Dance, including Saint Louis (23-13/10-8 Atlantic 10 Conference), Belmont (27-6/16-2 Ohio Valley Conference) and Montana (26-9/16-4 Big Sky). Advancing to the Collegeinsider.com Tournament were Seattle (18-15/6-10 Western Athletic Conference) and Southern Utah (17-7/9-11 Big Sky).

In all, Eastern faces nine non-conference foes from eight different leagues who combined for a 191-108 record a year ago, and were a collective 96-56 in their respective leagues.

The Eagles open the season on Tuesday, Nov. 5, with a home game versus Portland Bible College (3-20) of the Pacific Christian Athletic Conference. The Eagles then play at Seattle on Nov. 9 before playing four games in the Gotham Classic in New York City. After playing at Saint Louis, Boston College (14-17/5-13 Atlantic Coast Conference) and High Point (16-15/9-7 Big South), Eastern hosts Belmont on Nov. 26.

The Washington game follows, then EWU plays a trio of home games — Dec. 8 versus former Big Sky member North Dakota (12-18/6-10 Summit League), Dec. 13 against Multnomah (15-15/6-12 Cascade Collegiate Conference) and Dec. 17 versus Nebraska Omaha (21-11/13-3 Summit League).

The non-conference schedule concludes with the game at Gonzaga, followed by the team’s Big Sky opener at Weber State on Dec. 28. Eastern’s Big Sky home opener is versus Portland State on Jan. 4.

Eastern’s conference schedule was announced last winter. The Big Sky Conference Championship, which will take place in Boise, Idaho, for the second year of a three-year agreement, is scheduled for March 11-14, 2020 at CenturyLink Arena.

Eastern finished 12-8 in Big Sky Conference play, including a five-game winning streak late in the year to help secure third place in the regular season standings. The Eagles won the first two Big Sky tournament games before falling in the championship again for the second-straight year.

After EWU started the season 1-9, Mason Peatling returned from a toe injury and Eastern was 15-9 the rest of the season to finish 16-18. Eastern was just 1-3 to start league play, but then won 13 of its final 19 games of the season after most of its injury woes subsided, but the Eagles did play the final 10 games of the season without All-Big Sky guard Jacob Davison.

“Our players are healthy to start the year and we’ve set high goals and expectations for ourselves,” added Legans. “I couldn’t be more excited for the season to get rolling!”