Fast start helps Eagles to 90-74 win

HIGH POINT, N.C. — After scoring just four points in his first four collegiate games, it was a due time for Ellis Magnuson to have a breakout game.

Magnuson was one of four players in double figures, helping the Eastern Washington University men’s basketball team jump out to a 15-2 lead and beat a High Point University team coached by Tubby Smith 90-74 Saturday, Nov. 23, at the Millis Center in High Point, N.C.

Magnuson scored 12 points in the first half, including a pair of 3-pointers after entering the game 0 for 7 as a collegian. The 2019 graduate of Borah High School in Boise, Idaho, has started all five games for the Eagles.

High Point fell to 0-6.

“He’s a very good basketball player, and he is going to be very good for us down the road,” Eastern head coach Shantay Legans said. “He was great for us today.”

Magnuson finished with 12 points, eight assists and three steals, with junior Jacob Davison and sophomore Kim Aiken Jr. each scoring 19 to lead EWU.

Senior Mason Peatling was the fourth player in double figures with 15 to go along with a team-leading eight rebounds.

Eastern out-shot the Panthers 47 percent to 33 percent, including 54 percent to 24 percent in the first half when EWU led 41-35.

“The way we started off was great,” Legans said. “That’s what propelled us to the win today.”

Magnuson hit 4-of-6 shots in the game, including 2-of-3 from the 3-point line. Aiken added five rebounds, three steals and a pair of blocked shots, and Davison also had three thefts. The Groves brothers combined for 13 points and seven rebounds off the bench, with sophomore Tanner Groves finishing with eight points and three boards, and true freshman Jacob Groves making his first appearance as an Eagle and scoring five points and grabbing four rebounds.

High Point entered the game averaging just 51.2 points per game this season while making only 33.2 percent of its shots overall and 28.0 percent from the 3-point line.

Eastern entered shooting better than the Panthers at 41.3 percent, but that was skewed by EWU’s 55.1 percent shooting versus Portland Bible in an overwhelming 107-25 victory on Nov. 5.

Eastern is 3-2 on the season.

An injury-plagued 2018-19 season ended with a second-straight appearance in the Big Sky Conference Tournament championship game for the Eagles, with four of the main players from that squad returning.

Eastern had its fourth-straight season with 10 Big Sky wins or more and a sixth-straight year with a winning league record, finishing 12-9 in the league and 16-18 overall.

High Point is 0-6 this year, and was 16-15 a year ago in Smith’s first season at the helm, finishing 9-7 in league play.

Located in High Point, N.C., the Panthers are in the Big South Conference and coached by Smith, who entered the year 613-317 in 28 seasons as a collegiate head coach. He was head coach for Kentucky when the Wildcats won the 1998 NCAA Tournament title.

Playing at home for the first time since a 107-25 thrashing of Portland Bible College, Eastern was scheduled to face a powerful Belmont University squad on Tuesday, Nov 26.

Belmont was 27-6 overall a year ago and won the Ohio Valley Conference title with a 16-2 record. The Bruins received an at-large bid as a No. 11 seed to the NCAA Tournament.

Belmont beat Temple 81-70 in the “First Four” and then fell to Maryland 79-77 in the first round.