And to think they get to do it all over again in less than two weeks.

The Eastern Washington University men's basketball team hit its last four 3-pointers in the second overtime and beat Seattle 80-76 Tuesday (Nov. 22) at Reese Court to win the title in the Legends Classic sub-regional round in Cheney, Wash.
 
The Eagles had made just eight of 30 3-point shots until hitting its last four in less than a two-minute span. Bogdan Bliznyuk, Sir Washington, Felix Von Hofe and Cody Benzel all hit treys to turn a 70-65 deficit into a 77-73 lead with 25 seconds to play. Before that, Benzel and Bliznyuk hit triples – both with four seconds on the clock -- to force the game into overtime and double-overtime.
 
Tournament MVP Jacob Wiley led the way with 20 points, nine rebounds, five blocked shots, five assists and a pair of steals in the victory. Benzel and Von Hofe each has 17, and freshman Luka Vulikic added a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
 
"It's hard scoring against that zone," said Eastern head coach Jim Hayford. "But if the game goes on and on and on, suddenly it gets a little easier to score against it. We're really happy to get the win.
 
 "That all kind of hangs on the back of the performance Jake had in the second half," he added. "We were going at them with him inside, and he played really well. I thought we got great minutes from our freshman tonight – Luka had a double-double and is a very versatile player."
 
The game featured 14 lead changes and 11 times, all in the second half and overtime. They meet again on Dec. 4 in Seattle.
 
Bryant (2-3) defeated Louisiana Monroe (1-4) 64-57 in the consolation game earlier Tuesday. Joining Wiley on the all-tournament team were Seattle's Brendan Westendorf, Bryant's Nisre Zouzoua and Louisiana Monroe's Sam McDaniel.
 
 
Won-Lost Records . . .  
 
* The Eagles, who beat Bryant 81-77 to advance to the title game, are now 3-2. Eastern opened the season with a 70-47 victory over Linfield on Nov. 11 and then fell at Northwestern and Texas in a pair of road games in the Legends Classic. Seattle fell to 2-3.
 
* 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 . . .
 
* Tuesday's game was the first of two Eastern will play in the next two weeks versus Seattle. The Eagles will take on the Redhawks again on Dec. 4 in Seattle at 1 p.m. But before that, the Eagles will spend Thanksgiving in the Cheney area, then prepare for another tournament with games on back-to-back days.
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* On Saturday (Nov. 26) and Sunday (Nov. 27), the Eagles will host the Eastern Washington Classic at Reese Court.  Eastern faces Denver at 6 p.m. on Saturday, just after San Francisco and Sacramento State play at 3:35 p.m. On Sunday, the Eagles will host San Francisco, and at noon that day, Denver will take on Sac State. At 3 p.m. on Sunday, the Eastern women's team hosts Multnomah. The Eagle men will again travel the nation this season 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).
 
 
Keys to Game . . .
 
* After a sluggish first half, both teams found their shooting eyes from the 3-point stripe after intermission. Eastern finished 12-of-34, including 4-of-15 in the second half and 5-of-7 in overtime. Seattle was also 5-of-7 in overtime and 6-of-12 in the second half, finishing at 14-of-37 in the game. In the first half, Eastern managed to make just 3-of-12 3-point shots against the Redhawks zone, and shot at only a 33 percent clip. But the Eagles led 22-19 at half, thanks mostly to its defense that held SU to 30 percent from the field, including just 3-of-18 3-pointers.
 
Top Performers . . .
 
* Senior graduate transfer Jacob Wiley had season highs in five categories – points (20), rebounds (9), assists (5), blocked shots (5) and steals (2). He sank 5-of-10 shots from the field and 10-of-12 free throws.
* Sophomore Cody Benzel made the second start of his career, with his outside shooting an asset versus the zone defense of the Redhawks. The graduate of Spokane's Ferris High School finished with 17 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the 3-point arc, after scoring 12 with four 3-pointers one night earlier versus Bryant.
* Senior Felix Von Hofe has his second double-figure game of the season, finishing with 17 points with a trio of 3-pointers and 6-of-8 shooting from the free throw line.
* Freshman Luka Vulikic had 12 points and 11 rebounds, shattering his previous season highs of four apiece.
*Junior Bogdan Bliznyuk finished with seven points on a 2-of-12 shooting night, but did finish with nine rebounds and four assists. He was scoreless in the first half versus the Redhawks after scoring 50 points in the first half in EWU's last three games. He had 21 versus Bryant, 20 against Northwestern and nine versus Texas on his way to a total of 79 in those three outings.
* Junior Sir Washington also scored seven points, all coming in the overtime periods.
 
 
Turning Point . . .
 
* Trailing 70-65 in the second overtime, Bogdan Bliznyuk starting EWU's 3-point barrage with a trey at the 2:13 mark. Sir Washington followed at 1:37, then Felix Von Hofe hit one to complete a 9-0 run with 46.7 ticks left. With EWU clinging to a one-point lead, Benzel knocked down his trey with 25 seconds remaining to give the Eagles a two-possession advantage, then Eastern made 3-of-6 free throws in the final 15.7 seconds to seal the win.
 
 
Key Stats . . .
* The game was about as balanced as it could be, with both teams shooting at a 40 percent clip. Seattle had a slight rebounding edge at 39-38 and had 13 turnovers to EWU's 15. The Eagles finished with 10 blocked shots.
 
 
Team Highlights . . .
 
* Eastern jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead and led the entire first half. But it was a back-and-forth affair after that, with the second half and overtime featuring 11 ties and 14 lead changes. A 3-pointer by Cody Benzel with four seconds left sent the game into overtime, then a trey by Bogdan Bliznyuk with 4.9 seconds left forced a second extra period. Bliznyuk was 0-of-10 from the field up to that point.
 
 
Notables . . .
* Seattle lost in the second round of the Western Athletic Conference 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 had never played Bryant until this season, but are now 14-9 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.
 
* A year ago, Bryant was 8-23 overall and 5-13 in the Northeast Conference. Seattle was 13-15 overall and 7-7 in the Western Athletic Conference, while Louisiana Monroe was 20-14 on the season and 15-5 in the Sun Belt Conference.
 
* 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. The Legends Classic is produced by the Gazelle Group of Princeton, N.J. The Gazelle Group is a sports marketing firm, specializing in event production and management, client representation, and sponsorship consulting. Gazelle produces numerous nationally-recognized events, such as the 2K Classic benefiting Wounded Warrior Project, the Gotham Classic, and the College Basketball Invitational. For more information on the Gazelle Group, please visit gazellegroup.com.
 
 
More Comments from Head Coach Jim Hayford . . .
 
On Redhawks: "Our sincerest appreciation goes to Seattle. We played a double overtime game between two teams who put their hearts out there with everything they had. It's hard being in that other locker room, because they played that close to winning too. So we have a lot of respect for them."
 
On 3-Point Shots Down the Stretch: "We made some big, clutch shots. Cody made it 52-52 at the buzzer to end regulation, then Bogdan picked a good time to hit his first basket of the night to force double-overtime. It was back to a one-point game and Cody had ice in his veins and made another three. Mixed in there were some big baskets by Sir Washington as well."
 
On Talk With Benzel at a Timeout: "We have a saying in our program that if you have the guts to take it, you better have the guts to make it. I told Cody he had some great guts, and we had a little laugh."
 
On Completive Game: "It's why you get into this career – the joy of competition and two teams just going at it. To be in November and have a game like that is really fun – it's fun for the guys. It's really fun to be on this side of it and heartbreaking to be on the other side. Guys just stepped up and made some big plays and big shots, and some big stops too. What an exciting basketball game. Now we have to go back to Key Arena and play them again. It's fun to compete like that."