Eagles fall in 2nd round after thrilling win at WSU
EWU's Angelo Allegri fires a shot against Oklahoma State Sunday in the Eagles' 71-60 National Invitational Tournament loss. Allegri led Eastern in scoring with 17 points.
In their National Invitational Tournament second-round battle with the Oklahoma State, Eastern Washington ran out of bullets.
Playing at home in Stillwater, March 19, the Cowboys shot the ball well while the Eagles did not and claimed a 71-60 win at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
Eastern advanced to this second-round game following its 81-74 win over Washington State on March 14 in Pullman.
The Eagles, who regularly shot at or near 50 percent from the field in most of their games, were a sub-par 38.6 percent from the field (22-57) and 9-31 from 3-point range, just 29 percent vs. the Cowboys.
"The talk in the locker room after the game was very, very brief about this game in particular. We played a good team and lost," head coach David Riley said. "But what these guys have done throughout the season, I can't tell them enough how much our coaching staff appreciates them."
Eastern led right off the opening tip, 5-0 and again 18-17 at the midway point of the first half. But it was all OSU after that as the Cowboys got a buzzer-beating 3-point shot to lead 39-30 at halftime.
They led by 15 early in the second half before Eastern sliced to a six-point deficit, 52-46, with 10 minutes, 17 seconds remaining. A 7-1 OSU run followed to put it away.
Angelo Allegri finished with 17 points to lead Eastern in his final game as an Eagle. Dane Erikstrup had 14 and Casey Jones 10. But hurting the Eagles was Big Sky MVP, Steele Venters being held to just two points.
At Pullman, after Washington State got the lead 74-72 with 1:19 to play, the Eagles went on a 9-0 run to close out its first NIT victory.
Venters, who led Eastern scoring with 27 points, nailed a 3-pointer with 16 seconds to play broke a 74-all tie putting the Eagles ahead 77-74 and he followed that with a pair of free throws to secure the game with 3 seconds remaining.
EWU finished with a 23-11 record, reaching 20-plus wins for the fifth time as a D-I program. Included in the season were impressive runs that featured a nation-leading 18-game winning streak and a 16-0 start in Big Sky Conference play.
"For these guys, and this program to come as far as we've come, we've built a really strong foundation, we're right here as a program to be reckoned with," Riley told radio voice Larry Weir.
"Tradition doesn't graduate," Riley added.
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