The Longhorns were every bit as advertised.
 
Texas, ranked as high as 21st in this week's NCAA Division I polls, used a 9-0 run in the first half to break open a close game in a 85-52 victory over Eastern Washington University in a non-conference game Thursday (Nov. 17) in Austin, Texas. The game is a part of the Legends Classic presented by the Gazelle Group.
 
Eastern junior Bogdan Bliznyuk had his second-straight 20-point effort with 22 against Texas, but the powerful Longhorns had five players in double figures. The Big 12 Conference foe made 11 3-pointers compared to just three for the Eagles.
 
"They are a legitimate top 25 team with young talent -- they have tremendous athletes," said Eastern head coach Jim Hayford. "For a team like us to come in here and do well against a team like that, we have to have great cohesiveness. We're just too early in the process. The joy of coaching is putting a team together so that you can do that."
 
"Bogdan held his own and we're really proud of him. (Freshman Mason Peatling) came off the bench again and gave us great minutes. Those were two bright spots that stick out to me."
 
The Eagles return home to face Bryant (8-23/5-13 Northeast Conference last season) on Nov. 21 in the Cheney Sub-Regional of the Legends Classic, followed by Seattle (13-15/7-7 Western Athletic Conference) or Louisiana Monroe (20-14/15-5 Sun Belt) 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 on the 22nd.
 
On Thanksgiving weekend (Nov. 26 and 27), the Eagles will host the Eastern Washington Classic at Reese Court. The Eagles will again travel the nation by playing teams from 13 different leagues. Eastern's schedule includes four teams which appeared in the NCAA Tournament a year ago, and four others who joined EWU last year in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI).
 
Texas is ranked 23^rd this week in the Associated Press Poll and 21^st in the USA Today Coaches Poll. Eastern was playing against a ranked opponent for the 24th time in school history, having registered its lone victory on Nov. 15, 2001, when EWU beat No. 10 St. Joseph's 68-67.
 
"The beauty of being Division I is to be able to play these games," added Hayford. "When we play well and represent well it's a beautiful thing. When it's not, it kind of shows you what it's like between us and the big boys and what we have to do to close the gap. That's what we'll put our energy into."
 
 
Won-Lost Records . . .  
 
* The Eagles are 1-2, having opened the season with a 70-47 victory over Linfield on Nov. 11 and then falling at Northwestern 86-72 three nights later. Texas is now 3-0 after opening the season with victories over Incarnate Word (78-73) and Louisiana Monroe (80-59).
 
* 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.
 
* The Longhorns, ranked as high as 21st this week, 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.
 
 
What It Means . . .
 
* Now that two of its toughest road challenges are out of the way, the Eagles return home for four-straight games, all against NCAA Division I foes. Eastern, along with Bryant, Louisiana Monroe, and Seattle, are four of the teams participating in this year's Legends Classic, and are playing in Cheney as part of a four-team sub-regional. The other four teams in the tournament are Texas, Colorado, Northwestern and Notre Dame, which advanced to the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tournament a year ago. These four teams, with a combined 85 NCAA Tournament appearances and six Final Fours among them, each hosted a pair of regional round games on campus before facing off at Barclays Center in the Championship Rounds on Nov. 21-22. All four games of the Championship Rounds will be televised on ESPN networks.
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* 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.
 
* Seattle lost in the second round of the WAC Tournament last season, then made it to the second round of the College Basketball Invitational before falling to Vermont. Louisiana-Monroe played in the College Insider Tournament and lost in the first round to Furman. The Eagles have never played Bryant, but are 13-9 all-time against the Redhawks and 0-2 versus the Warhawks, who were formerly known as Northeast Louisiana when the Eagles played them – the last meeting coming on Dec. 27, 1992.
 
 
Keys to Game . . .

* Texas played Eastern's game, and played it well. The Longhorns made 11-of-28 3-pointers for 39 percent after entering the game making just 20 percent for the season (10-of-40). The Eagles were uncharacteristically cold, making only three of 23 attempts for 14 percent. A year ago, Eastern finished the season ranked fifth in NCAA Division I with an average of 10.5 3-pointers made per game and were 25th in accuracy from the 3-point stripe (38.5 percent).
 
 
Top Performers . . .
 
*Junior Bogdan Bliznyuk led the Eagles with 22 points on 10-of-21 shooting from the field, and also had a pair of assists and five rebounds. He was coming off a 25-point performance against Northwestern on Nov. 14 which was one away from his career high.
* Senior graduate transfer Jacob Wiley finished with 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field. He also had four rebounds and a blocked shot before fouling out after playing 21 minutes.
* True freshman Mason Peatling chipped in six points off the bench, making 3-of-7 shots.
* Senior Felix Von Hofe scored eight points, making 2-of-5 3-point shots.
 
 
Turning Point . . .
 
* Eastern trailed just 13-11 in the early going, but the Longhorns when on a 9-0 run with Andrew Jones scoring eight of them. Eastern cut the lead to nine, but Texas extended it to 17 and led by 15 at halftime, 39-24. The Longhorns led by as many as 29 in the second half.
 
 
Key Stats . . .
 
* Eastern went into the game averaging 17.5 turnovers per game, and those were EWU's undoing in the first half versus the Longhorns. The Eagles had 11, leading to a 9-0 advantage in points off turnovers for Texas. For the game, Eastern had 16 turnovers to 11 for Texas, which outscored EWU 16-4 in points off turnovers.
 
 
Team Highlights . . .
 
* Eastern's Bogdan Bliznyuk scored nine of EWU's 22 points in the first half, continuing a trend on the road trip. He had 20 first-half points against Northwestern three nights earlier when he finished with 25 points, one shy of his career high.
 
 
Notables . . .

* The Texas game was the 24th time Eastern has faced a ranked opponent. The Eagles are now 1-23 versus nationally-ranked teams, but haven't played against one in nearly two years. In the 2014-15 season Eastern lost 77-68 to No. 22 SMU on Nov. 22, 2014, 81-77 to No. 17 Washington on Dec. 14, 2014, and then 84-74 to Georgetown on March 19, 2015. Before that, EWU lost 82-65 to No. 15 Connecticut on Dec. 28, 2013, and 77-69 on Nov. 11, 2011, to a Gonzaga team ranked 23rd in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today preseason coaches' polls. The Gonzaga game was the head coaching debut at Eastern for Jim Hayford.
* Eastern had never played Texas until this season, and is now 0-9 against current members of the Big 12 Conference. The last time EWU played a school from that league was on Dec. 18, 2010, when the Eagles fell at Nebraska 72-52. However, Nebraska has since left the league. The Eagles played third-ranked Oklahoma State in the 2004 NCAA Tournament.
 
 
 
More Comments from Head Coach Jim Hayford . . .
 
On Longhorns: "Credit Texas. They are a very good, team very well coached and were very well-prepared. They imposed their will on us and I'm just disappointed we didn't give them a better fight. We have to learn from it – we'll come back to Cheney and get better."
 
On Embracing the Challenge: "The beauty of being Eastern Washington, and kind of the culture of our department, is that we want to embrace all these challenges whatever sport it is. The football team has set a great example and we've had Eastern basketball teams come in and beat the giants. You don't want to lose that edge and just say you tried – we want to embrace every opportunity. We didn't make the most of it, but we'll take what we can from it and improve."
 
On Turnovers & Shooting: "We took care of the ball better in the second half. We didn't make any threes off the bench and had a poor shooting night. If we're going to win a game like this we have to shoot it better, and we didn't do that."
 
On Being Shorthanded: "We're obviously battling injuries between Julian Harrell's shoulder and Cody Benzel's knee. It's kind of hard when players can't practice, and then you put them in a game and they aren't as crisp as they could be. We'll nurse that through, and have four games in eight days. Different guys have to make the most of their opportunities and step up."