After dusting off the cobwebs at Reese Court in a decisive manner, Eastern Washington University men's basketball head coach Jim Hayford stated the obvious.
 
"It sure is nice to play on our home court," he said as his opening comment to the media after his team picked up its first Big Sky Conference victory of the season Saturday (Jan. 9) in Cheney, Wash. Jumping out to an early 16-point lead and having its best defensive field goal percentage of the season, the Eagles soared past Idaho 74-60 in an important league game at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash.
 
Senior Austin McBroom had 26 points and seven assists, and Julian Harrell scored 14 in his starting debut as an Eagle. Eastern out-shot the Vandals 53 percent to 31 percent, with Eastern's defensive performance its best of the year by six percent.
 
McBroom hit 8-of-14 shots from the field, including 6-of-10 3-point attempts. Felix Von Hofe added 19 points and five 3-pointers to help EWU to a 15-of-29 performance from the 3-point arc. And senior Venky Jois had four blocked shots to move into the No. 2 spot on the Big Sky career leaders list with a career total of 212.
 
"We didn't think they had a good matchup on Austin McBroom, and we wanted to put the ball in his hands," said Hayford of his team's fourth win in four tries at home. "He's obviously an extremely quick player and a great shooter. He's disappointed if he doesn't shoot the three at about 55 percent. He was obviously the player of the game – and the game ball goes to our team defense. I was really pleased with how we played."
 
 
 
Won-Lost Records . . .  
 
* The Eagles are now 1-2 in the Big Sky and 7-8 overall following their fourth-straight win over the Vandals. Last year, Idaho returned to the Big Sky Conference and EWU beat the Vandals twice in the regular season and once in the Big Sky Conference Tournament.
 
* Idaho is 10-6 overall and 2-1 in the Big Sky and had its five-game winning streak snapped. The Vandals had started that streak with a 78-74 home win over Washington State on Dec. 10. Last weekend, EWU fell by six points at Northern Colorado (79-71) and eight at North Dakota (79-71), but Idaho defeated both of those opponents – 74-71 over UND and 75-70 versus UNC.
 
 
 
What It Means . . .
 
* The victory kept Eastern from falling three games behind Idaho in the standings. The Vandals were picked to finish seventh by the media and eighth by the coaches in the league's pre-season polls, while EWU was picked to finish third in both. Thus far, EWU is 4-0 at home and 3-8 on the road, and are in the midst of a three-game stretch in which it will play as many home games in the next two weekends as it has the entire season. Of EWU's first 14 games of the season, just three were at home – Nov. 15, Nov. 17 and Dec. 6. A Dec. 17 game against Morehead State was canceled because of weather-related travel difficulties for the Kentucky-based team. Thus, by the time the Eagles played Idaho, they did not play at home in more than a month and had played 10 of its last 11 on the road (including its previous six).
 
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* The Eagles continue league play at home by hosting Southern Utah on Thursday, Jan. 14 at 6:05 p.m. in another game broadcast on SWX. The following Saturday (Jan. 16), Eastern hosts Northern Arizona at 12:05 p.m.
 
 
 
Keys to Game . . .
 
* The Eagles ranked 344th out of 351 NCAA Division I teams in field goal percentage defense entering the game at 51.0 percent. But Eastern held Idaho to just 30 points in each half on 31.3 percent shooting from the field. Previously, the lowest shooting percentages against the Eagles were 37.5 percent by George Fox on Nov. 15 and 37.5 percent by Pacific on Nov. 28.
 
 
 
Top Performers . .
 
* Senior graduate transfer Austin McBroom made 8-of-14 shots from the field, including 6-of-10 3-pointers, on his way to a 26-point night. He also had seven assists – his most against a NCAA Division I opponent this season and second overall behind the 10 he had against George Fox.
 
* Junior Julian Harrell, a transfer from City College of San Francisco who previously played at Penn, made the first start of his career. He scored 10 points in 10 minutes of playing time in the first half, and finished with 14 points and three rebounds in a total of 25 minutes. He made 5-of-7 shots from the floor, including 3-of-5 3-point attempts. One game earlier versus North Dakota (1/4/16), he made his Eagle debut after missing the first 13 games with a hand injury. He had two points, five rebounds and an assist in 10 minutes of action.
 
* Junior Felix Von Hofe has now scored 120 points in his last five outings (24.0 per game) after finishing with 19 against Idaho. He made 5-of-11 shots from the 3-point line, and was 6-of-12 overall with five rebounds.
 
* Senior Venky Jois, who was ranked sixth in the nation entering the game with a .669 field goal percentage, finished a perfect 4-of-4 with a pair of dunks. He had nine points and eight rebounds, and also contributed four blocked shots to move into second on the Big Sky Conference career leaders list with 212.
 
* Sophomore Bogdan Bliznyuk chipped in six points, a team-high nine rebounds and three assists.
 
 
 
Turning Point . . .
 
* From the opening tip, the Eagles were the aggressor and made nine of their first 11 shots to lead by 16 on several occasions in the first half. Eastern opened the second half on an 8-0 run to take its biggest lead of the night at 24, and the closest Idaho came was 11 with 1:01 left. Idaho never led, and EWU led for all but the game's first 12 seconds when it was 0-0.
 
 
 
Key Stats . . .
 
* Eastern continued its torrid shooting from the 3-point stripe, sinking 15-of-29 for a season-best 51.7 percent. The previous high-water marks for EWU was 48.1 percent against Western Carolina (13-of-27) and 48.0 percent versus Denver (12-of-25). The Eagles entered the Idaho game ranked 11th in 3-pointers per game (10.5) and 48th in accuracy (38.1 percent).
 
 
 
Team Highlights . . .
 
* The Eagles jumped out to a quick 28-12 lead, with Julian Harrell scoring all 10 of his first-half points in that stretch on a trio of 3-pointers and a free throw. Eastern led by no less than 11 the rest of the half as Austin McBroom hit a pair of free throws with one second left to give EWU a 46-30 halftime lead. The Eagles sank 60 percent of their shots in the first half with 10 3-pointers, including nine of EWU's first 11 in its first appearance at Reese Court in over a month. Idaho shot at a 33 percent clip with just one trey in the opening half.
 
* Senior Venky Jois had four blocked shots to move into second on the Big Sky Conference career leaders list. His school-record total of 212 is tied with Daren Engellant (Montana, 1989-92) and is 35 from the league record of 247 (Brian Qvale, Montana, 2008-11).
 
 
 
Notables . . .
 
* The Eagles are 6-1 when they've held opponents to 71 points or less and 4-1 when holding opponents to less than 45 percent from the field. Twice EWU has held opponents to a season-low 58 points, including a 58-52 loss at Seattle and a 74-58 road win at Denver. Eastern is 5-0 when it has a better field goal percentage.
 
* Eastern has now led at halftime in 11 of 14 games this season, and has a 7-4 record in those 10 games.
 
* Saturday's game was a battle between one of the top offensive teams in the nation against one of the top defensive squads. Through game of Jan. 8, the Eagles were second in the league and 54th in NCAA Division I in scoring offense (80.0 per game), and were 11th nationally in 3-pointers per game (10.5 per game). The Vandals lead in the league in defense, allowing 64.6 points per game to rank 42nd in NCAA Division I.  They were also 24th nationally in rebounding margin with a league-leading +7.7 mark per game, and out-rebounded EWU 45-32.
 
* The Eagles and Vandals played three hard-fought battles last season, with EWU pulling out an 89-86 victory in Moscow, Idaho, on Jan. 10. Eastern then rallied from 11 points down in the final 1:33 in the rematch at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash., for a 98-95 overtime victory on Jan. 31. The Eagles then won 91-83 in the quarterfinals of the Big Sky Conference Tournament in Missoula, Mont., when Tyler Harvey tied the Big Sky Conference Tournament record with a career-high 42 points. Harvey made 8-of-12 3-pointers and 13-of-20 shots overall, with Venky Jois adding his fifth-straight double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds.
 
* The meeting last season in Moscow was EWU's first-ever league victory over the UI, and was the first league meeting between the schools since Feb. 17, 1996. The Vandals rejoined the Big Sky Conference in the 2014-15 season after previously competing in the league from 1963-1996, winning tournament championships in 1980, 1981, 1989 and 1990. Eastern began playing in the Big Sky in 1987-88, and won the tourney title in 2004. In those previous nine seasons of co-existence in the Big Sky, the Vandals won all 18 league meetings between the two schools, as well as the Big Sky Conference Tournament Championship game in 1990 won 65-62 by the Vandals on a shot at the buzzer by Ricardo Boyd.
 
* Since 1996 when Idaho left the Big Sky Conference, the two schools have now played 18 times, with Eastern winning 12 of them. Idaho leads the all-time series 52-28. Since EWU became a NCAA Division I member in the 1983-84 season, EWU is 15-31 against Idaho (8-14 home, 6-14 away, 1-3 neutral).
 
 
 
More Comments from Head Coach Jim Hayford . . .
 
On Julian Harrell: "We've been missing a piece. Sir Washington is a great sixth man, and we were throwing different freshmen in there trying to find that fifth piece, knowing it would be Julian. He's a really good player. That kind of rounded us off, and took away some of the bumps we were hitting. He's a fourth-year junior – he's played defense since he was a freshman. It was great having him in there, and with each week he gains more stamina and his hand gets more comfortable. It's hard for opponents when you look at our starting lineup because we have five dynamic offensive players – what are you going to stop? We just have to get those five dynamic offensive players to play defense."
 
On Playing at Home: "I feel like if our guys could have gotten a couple of more home games in December and preparation weeks of practice, we would have been a lot further along right now. Wins bring confidence, and our players were having to build confidence even though they weren't winning games. The road was tough, especially when you ask them to play 11 of 14 games away from home. It really was nice to be on our home court."
 
On Defense: "We've really been challenging our team to step up defensively. To hold that Idaho team to 31 percent and allow only 30 points in each half, I was really pleased with how we played. I think about 95 percent of practice this week was defense. Even a fifth-grader could tell that we needed to get better on defense – the offense isn't the problem. It was a great time to have a bye day, because we could just go hard for five days and get better as a team defensively. This team is going to be a good defensive team. They've had five and now they need another 10 really hard practices to understand what hard and smart defense is. We'll keep pushing them there."
 
On Offense: "We ran our offense well and shot over 50 percent. We knew with their defense we had to make outside shots and we did that. As long as you can shoot the ball well against their pack defense, you're going to have a good day. And we shot the ball well. The first six or seven minutes of the second half we missed some really good, wide-open threes. If you go down to Moscow and don't shoot the ball well, you are in for a whole different game. But if you shoot the ball well from the outside against their defense, it's going to open everything up and you are going to get to play your game."
 
On Assists Total: "With 15 assists on 25 baskets, we passed the ball well – we are a really good offensive team. The other side of that is somebody at the other end of the pass has to make a shot, and at home you shoot better. When you make 10 threes in the first half, it really stretches the defense and then you can do whatever you want. Kind of our main priority defensively was to hit them hard the first five minutes and then slow the game down so the clock ticks the whole way. We did that really well."
 
On 0-2 EWU Beating 2-0 UI: "It doesn't let Idaho get three games up on us, and I think they are going to be one of the top four teams. The first goal is to compete for the Big Sky championship, but no matter what you want to be one of those first four teams who don't have to play four games in the Big Sky Tournament. If we would have been 0-3 with a loss at home, it would have been very early to have your back against the wall – especially when your team still has to come together. This puts a little fuel in the tank – we were running on fumes being on the road so long. This fills the tank up and gives our guys the juice to defend the home court next week."
 
On Homestand: "This really gives us three weeks to concentrate on ourselves, get better and coach our guys up. Hopefully we can defend our home court against two good teams next week. We are trying to catch up for lost time in the development of this team. This team is going to be a really good team in March, so I was pleased with the performance against Idaho."