The Eastern Washington University men's basketball team again gave a Big Ten opponent everything it could handle, but Northwestern survived for a 86-72 victory over the Eagles Monday (Nov. 14) at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill. The game was the first of four games the Eagles will play as part of the Legends Classic presented by the Gazelle Group.
 
Eastern trailed by 15 in the first half, but rallied to pull within six twice at the end of the first half and two more times in the second half. But the Eagles went more than four minutes without a field goal during a game-deciding 8-2 run for the Wildcats.
 
Junior Bogdan Bliznyuk scored 25 for the Eagles, including 20 in the first half. Senior graduate transfer Jacob Wiley finished with 19 before fouling out, scoring 14 of his points in the second half. Northwestern had five players score in double figures.
 
"There are a lot of pieces there for us, but Northwestern's balance was too much to overcome," said Eastern head coach Jim Hayford. "We needed to either find a way to hold them to 10 less points, or we needed to find some more scoring to keep up with them. Right now we are trying to find strengths, roles and cohesion, and we are playing very quality opponents to help figure that out."

The last time Eastern played a team from the Big Ten Conference, Eastern came away with an 88-86 victory over Indiana on Nov. 24, 2014. Eastern plays next on Thursday (Nov. 14) against Big 12 member Texas, which is ranked 23^rd this week in the Associated Press Poll and 21^st in the USA Today Coaches Poll.

 
Won-Lost Records . . .  
 
* The Eagles are 1-1, having opened the season with a 70-47 victory over Linfield on Nov. 11. The Wildcats are 2-0, and were coming off a 94-63 victory over Mississippi Valley State in their opener the same day.
* Northwestern finished last season with an overall record of 20-12 and 8-10 in the Big Ten, losing to Michigan in the first round of the league tournament. The Wildcats have never been to the NCAA Tournament.
* The Eagles finished the 2015-16 season with an 18-16 record and advanced to the second round of the College Basketball Invitational, including the school's first NCAA Division I postseason win with a 79-72 victory over Pepperdine. Eastern finished fourth in the Big Sky Conference with a 10-8 league mark.
 
 
What It Means . . .
 
* The Eagles nearly pulled off a second-straight upset against a member of the Big Ten Conference in EWU's first-ever meeting against Northwestern. Eastern is now 1-14 all-time against the Big Ten, but Eastern's heart-stopping 88-86 victory at Big Ten Conference member Indiana Nov. 24, 2014, will go down as one of the greatest victories in school history. The Eagles, who would go on to advance to the NCAA Tournament, snapped the nation's third-longest non-conference home court winning streak at 43 in front of 11,636 Hoosier fans at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind. It was the first-ever win for the Eagles in 14 tries against a Big Ten Conference opponent and was the first Big Sky win on a Big Ten home court.
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* Eastern continues action in the Legends Classic on Thursday (Nov. 17), taking on 2-0 Texas in a game televised by the Longhorn Network. Texas beat Incarnate Word 78-73 in their opener, then beat Louisiana Monroe 80-59 on Nov. 14. The Longhorns finished 20-13 overall and was 11-7 in the Big 12 last year, and lost to Baylor in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament. They went on as a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament where it lost to Northern Iowa in the first round.
* The Eagles play 16 games at home this season, including five in the month of November alone. After the Texas game, the Eagles come home to host a subregional round of the Legends Classic, facing Bryant (8-23/5-13 Northeast Conference) on Nov. 21, followed by Seattle or Louisiana Monroe on Nov. 22. Eastern will play in the 6:05 p.m. game both nights, with the Nov. 21 winners and losers pairing off against each other.
 
 
Keys to Game . . .
 
* Eastern had 14 turnovers compared to just five for NU, which had a 19-11 edge in points off turnovers. Eastern had 21 turnovers in its opener against Linfield.
* Eastern sank 16-of-32 3-pointers against the zone defense of Linfield, but Northwestern held the Eagles to just 18 3-point shots. The Eagles made seven for 39 percent.
* Northwestern sophomore Vic Law Jr., who had a shoulder injury last season and was forced to redshirt, had 26 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field and 9-of-10 from the free throw line.
 
 
Top Performers . . .
*Junior Bogdan Bliznyuk scored only four points in Eastern's opener versus Linfield, but scored 20 of EWU's first 25 points. He finished with 25 on 10-of-19 shooting from the field. He also led EWU with five rebounds and four assists.
* Senior Jacob Wiley, a graduate transfer, finished with 19 points and five rebounds before fouling out with 4:34 remaining. He was an All-American at Lewis-Clark State in the 2015-16 season.
* True freshman Mason Peatling from Melbourne, Australia, came off the bench to score 10 points on 3-of-5 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 from the free throw line. He also had four rebounds in 13 minutes of playing time.
* Luka Vulikic, also a true freshman, had three assists and four rebounds in 15 minutes of action.
* Senior Felix Von Hofe scored just six points after opening the season with 21 points and seven 3-pointers in the win over Linfield. Von Hofe, was 17th in NCAA Division I a year ago with an average of 3.18 treys per game, only shot a trio of 3-point shots, making one.
 
 
Turning Point . . .
 
* A dunk by Jacob Wiley with 12:12 left cut Northwestern's lead to 63-56, but EWU went the next 4:18 without a field goal. During that stretch, Eastern missed three shots and had a pair of turnovers, and the resulting 8-2 run gave the Wildcats a 13-point cushion at the 8:50 mark. Northwestern trailed by no less than 10 the rest of the way.
 
 
Key Stats . . .
 
* Eastern out-shot Northwestern 49 percent to 48 percent, and held its own on the boards by equaling the bigger Wildcats 31-all. But the Wildcats made 23-of-26 free throws for 88 percent, compared to 11-of-13 for EWU.  The Eagles were whistled for 23 fouls and Northwestern had 16.
 
 
Team Highlights . . .
 
* True freshman Mason Peatling scored Eastern's last seven points of the first half with a pair of layups and a 3-pointer. Twice his baskets cut Northwestern's lead to six, as the Eagles trailed 46-38 at intermission. He finished with his first double-figure scoring game as an Eagle with 10, having finished with just two in EWU's opener against Linfield.
 
 
Notables . . .
 
* Eastern's 2016-17 roster includes three returning starters who were all honored on the College Sports Madness preseason All-Big Sky Conference squad. Junior forward Bogdan Bliznyuk was chosen as a first team selection by that organization, and seniors Felix Von Hofe and Julian Harrell were both picked to the fourth team. Last year, Bliznyuk averaged 12.4 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game, and registered the first triple-double in school history. Von Hofe averaged 13.0 points and 3.1 made 3-pointers per game, and Harrell chipped in 8.3 points and 2.8 rebounds after missing 13 games with a hand injury.
 
* EWU's 16-player roster includes four other returning letterwinners, one transfer who sat out last season (Geremy McKay), three other players who redshirted in 2015-16, four incoming freshmen and Lewis-Clark State transfer Jacob Wiley, who began his career at Montana.
 
 
More Comments from Head Coach Jim Hayford . . .
 
On Falling Behind: "We just dug a hole and were playing catch-up the rest of the way. But once we got into the game about 20 minutes and starting playing like we know we can, we played well. We need to continue our growth in seeing the scouting report and trusting it. We get familiar with things opponents do so we can stop them. That's going to take a little more cohesion."
 
On Northwestern & Eagle Offense: "They are a balanced team, so it's hard in that regard. We had a good night offensively. We are right there at 50 percent overall and 40 percent from three. We shot our free throws well. We were down early in the game in rebounding, but we finished the night 31-31."
 
On Freshmen Peatling and Vulikic: "They are very talented and we like this young class. And I like the way (sophomores) Ty Gibson and Jesse Hunt played. We have good youth. Our younger players have the belief we aren't going to go into rebuilding, but we are going to keep our success going."
 
On Texas: "We're fighting up a weight class or two this week. But it's only going to make us better. We need to shake off the travel and figure out how we're going to play Texas. Every coach at this time of year is looking at what his team has, how it's playing and what they need to do to improve."