Sports Briefs

Barriere claims more honors

FROM STAFF AND NEWS SOURCES

CHENEY — For the first time in his career, Eric Barriere was rewarded as the STATS Perform National Offensive Player of the Week after helping rally the Eagles to a 46-42 Big Sky Conference victory over Idaho State March 13 in Pocatello.

It was the second recognition this week for Barriere who also earned back-to-back ROOT SPORTS Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Week Award announced March 14

Barriere passed for 455 yards and five touchdowns, rallying Eastern from a 42-31 deficit with 8:41 left. Besides accounting for 30 points with his five TD passes, he had a key two-point conversion pass to bring Eastern to within a field goal of the Bengals.

After an ISU punt, he directed EWU on a game-winning, nine-play, 60-yard drive that included a game-winning 6-yard touchdown pass to Andrew Boston with 25 seconds to play.

Barriere was honored the previous week fter he passed for 413 yards and three touchdowns in a 45-13 victory over Northern Arizona on March 6 at Roos Field.

Tanner Groves joins elite company

The Eastern Washington University 6-foot-9 post player and Big Sky Conference Most Valuable Player has been selected to the National Association of Basketball Coaches All-District 6 First Team announced on March 16.

Groves, the MVP of the Big Sky Conference in the regular season and the tournament, becomes the ninth different Eagle player to be honored by the NABC, including eight since 2015. Rodney Stuckey was honored in 2006 and 2007, and since then Tyler Harvey (twice), Venky Jois (twice), Austin McBroom, Jacob Wiley, Bogdan Bliznyuk (twice), Mason Peatling and Jacob Davison have been honored. Davison, a teammate of Groves this season, was honored as a second team choice in 2020.