Eagles sweep into first-place in Big Sky

CHENEY – A sweep of regional rival Idaho not only extended the Eastern Washington University men's basketball team's winning streak to five games but – with a little help – propelled the Eagles into first place in the Big Sky Conference.

Balanced scoring and a 13-5 second-half run helped push the Eagles past the host Vandals on Thursday, Feb. 5, 89-75 while hot second-half EWU shooting led to a rout of the visitors, 90-64, on Saturday. Coupled with a Weber state sweep of former conference leader Montana State, and Eastern finds itself at 8-6 overall but more importantly 7-2 in the Big Sky, one-half game ahead of the Bobcats.

Eastern opened a 5-0 lead Thursday night, and stayed ahead despite a gritty performance by the Vandals, going into the half-time locker room up 38-34.

Idaho tied the game at 43 early in the second half, with the teams exchanging two more ties after that. But a basket by freshman Victor Radocai, coming off the bench, followed by eight consecutive points from redshirt-freshman Steele Venters and a 3-pointer by Casson Rouse put the Eagles up 73-60 with 7:14 to play, and the Eagles led by no less than nine the rest of the way to the win at Memorial Gym in Moscow.

Five Eastern Washington University players scored in double figures, led by sophomore Michael Meadows who went 7 for 10 from the field for 17 points to eclipse his previous career high of 11. Fellow sophomore Ellis Magnuson added 15 on 4-of-8 shooting from the field and 5-of-6 from the free throw line.

Junior Tanner Groves and his sophomore brother Jacob each had 12 points while Venters added 10 points for a career high. Pre-season Big Sky MVP senior Jacob Davison added five points while playing in his 100th game as an Eagle.

"We can play multiple styles of basketball, and that's the best part about our team," Eastern head coach Shantay Legans said. "We have players who can step up and we have players who can defend - they do a lot of different things to help us win games."

Saturday the Eagles came out cold from the field, hitting just one of their first 12 shots, but thanks to some solid defense and rebounding, kept Idaho to just a 10-5 margin. Jacob Groves then went 4 for 6 in shooting to give EWU the lead for good at 15-14, which they extended to 34-28 at the half.

Eastern led by eight on several occasions in the second half, but after the Vandals trimmed the last lead to just two, went on an 11-0 run with Magnuson scoring five points and Tyler Robertson and Meadows each hitting 3s over that stretch to go up 55-42 with 13:36 to play.

Idaho cut the margin to five, but 3s by Venters, Robertson and Davison keyed a 10-0 run extending it back to 70-55 with 7:05 remaining. EWU led by as many as 26 points and no less than 12 the rest of the way.

"In the second half we really got the ball moving," Legans said. "That put us in an advantage offensively - every time we got a stop we pushed it and played with a lot more pace in the second half."

Jacob Groves led four players in double figures with a career-high 17 points, with Meadows adding 16 as EWU finished with a total of 11 players scoring. Tanner Groves had 11 points and Venters added 10 points, and Eastern shot 57 % from the field in the second half.

Davison's nine points gave him 1,326 career points overall and moved him into 11th place on EWU's all-time scoring list, passing former Eagle Marc Axton.

The Eagles travel to Bozeman, Mont. for a showdown with second-place Montana State, Feb. 11 and 13. The Bobcats dropped their first two conference games last week, 96-88 at Weber State Thursday and 82-74 on Saturday, to fall into a three-way tie for second with Weber and Southern Utah.

According to conference statistics, Montana State is fourth in the Big Sky in offense and seventh in defense, 75.8 and 70.6 points respectively. Eastern is third in offense and eighth in defense at 77.9 and 71.7.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].