Eastern men open with 3 losses

CHENEY – The old saying, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” certainly applies to the Eastern Washington men’s basketball team following their third consecutive loss to open their season.

Playing a rugged schedule of “Power-5” conference schools, the defending Big Sky Conference champions suffered a third straight loss Nov. 12 to the Cincinnati Bearcats, 85-73 on the road.

Earlier in the week the Eagles were beaten 75-64 by Ole Miss in Oxford, Nov. 10 and opened their schedule with a 101-66 loss at Pac-12 Utah, Nov. 6.

“We knew it was going to be a tough road trip. We’ve learned a lot about ourselves, learned a lot about our team,” head coach David Riley said following the Cincinnati game.

Cedric Coward led the Eagles with 21 points while Casey Jones had 16 as the only other Eagle in double digits scoring.

Eastern closed to within 47-42 with 15 minutes remaining but a 13-2 Bearcat run followed that secured the win for a 3-0 record.

Coward paced the Eagles with 16 points against Ole Miss and joining Coward with double digits scoring were Dane Erikstrup, (12), Jake Kyman (10) and Casey Jones (10).

The lead changed nine times in the first 10 minutes of the second half as the teams exchanged baskets. EWU took a three-point lead with a free throw from Erikstrup with 13:59 left, but from there it was all Ole Miss. The Rebels went on an 18-5 run over the next 6:29 to take control.

Utah led wire-to-wire at the Huntsman Center, scoring two quick threes to open the game

“If you shoot 51% against a Pac-12 team, you’re doing something right,” Riley said. “But then we were worried about the first half, stopped playing defense, stopped going to our principles and (Utah) put up a big number.”

The biggest bright spot on the evening was the play of redshirt freshman LeJuan Watts as the Fresno native had a team-high 15 points. Watts added 10 rebounds for a double-double.

Eastern (0-3) will play their fourth-straight road game to open the season at Stanford Nov. 17. Their first home game will be on Wednesday, Nov. 23 vs. Walla Walla University, one of only three non-conference home games this season