Offense, defense, Felix Von Hofe and Jacob Wiley were all up to the task for Eastern Washington University at the Cowan Spectrum Friday (Dec. 30) in Moscow, Idaho.
 
Von Hofe scored 22 points and Wiley had a career-high 23 to lead an inspired Eagle defensive effort as EWU opened its Big Sky Conference men's basketball season with a 69-62 road victory over Idaho.
 
"The two seniors really game through," said a relieved Eastern head coach Jim Hayford, whose team led by as many as 22 before winning by seven. "That's what you have to do in conference play – rely on your seniors."
 
The Eagles held Idaho to 31 percent shooting from the field – a season-best effort this season for the Eagles. Eastern also had 10 blocked shots to equal its season high.
 
Von Hofe sank 6-of-11 3-pointers, after having entered the game making just 13-of-44 on the road this season for 30 percent. Wiley, who played the past two seasons at nearby Lewis-Clark State, made 9-of-13 shots from the field and had five blocked shots and nine rebounds.
 
Von Hofe's performance moved him into second in school history in 3-pointers made with 213, moving past the 210 of Parker Kelly from 2012-15. Von Hofe is now 47 from the record set by his former teammate Tyler Harvey from 2013-15 with 260.
 
Eastern led by as many as 22 in the second half, but Idaho used a 13-0 run to cut the lead to single digits. A 3-pointer by Von Hofe with 57.4 seconds left helped clinch the victory. The Eagles finished with 21 turnovers – 16 of them in the second half – to equal their season high.
 
"The bottom line is that we stood up and got out of here with a win," added Hayford. "It's always hard to close out a win on the road."
 
The Vandals returned to the Big Sky in the 2014-15 season, and Friday's game was another thriller. Eastern has won five of the seven meetings since then, and six of those previous EWU-UI meetings have been decided by eight points or fewer. Eastern won the first four games by margins of three, three, eight and 14, and Idaho had won the previous two games by four points apiece. Two of the meetings have come at the Big Sky Conference Championships.
 
 
Won-Lost Records . . .  
 
* The Eagles are now 9-5 in their 34th season as a member of NCAA Division I and 1-0 as they begin their 30th season as a member of the Big Sky.  Eastern entered the game with a league-best RPI of 83, and is now 7-0 at home and 2-5 on the road.
* Idaho is 5-7 and 0-1 in the league, and had entered the game with a RPI of 249.
 
 
What It Means . . .
 
* The victory gets Eastern off to a quick start in the league race, and more importantly, a key road victory. The Eagles were picked to finish fifth by the media and seventh by the coaches in the league's preseason basketball polls released Oct. 14, and open against an Idaho team picked second by the coaches and third by the media. The two teams will meet again on Friday, Feb. 17 in Cheney at 6:05 p.m.

 
What's Next . . .
 
* Eastern, which hasn't played at home since Dec. 13, hosts Montana State on Jan. 5 at 6:05 p.m. Pacific time following the conclusion of EWU's current stretch of four-straight road games. Eastern hosts Montana two days later on Jan. 7 at 1:05 p.m.
 
 
Keys to Game . . .
 
* The Eagles held Idaho to 31 percent shooting from the field, including just 26 percent in the first half. Idaho had stretches of nine-straight misses and two others of six-straight as the Eagles built leads of 44-27 lead early in the second half and 60-38 with 6:50 left. The Eagles blocked 10 shots, having entered the game ranked 34th in NCAA Division I with an average of 5.4 per game. Eastern's rebounding was also impressive, equaling the Vandals 35-all. Eastern has out-rebounded only two of its 14 opponents this season.
 
 
Top Performers . . .
 
* Senior graduate transfer Jacob Wiley sank 9-of-13 shots from the field and added nine rebounds and five blocked shots. Wiley entered the game averaging 3.2 blocked shots to lead the Big Sky by double the next player (1.6), and is ranked seventh in NCAA Division I.
* Senior Felix Von Hofe made 6-of-11 shots from the 3-point stripe and had 22 points. He entered the game ranked 27th in NCAA Division I with an average of 3.15 3-pointers per game, helping EWU rank 77th as a team (8.8).
* Junior Sir Washington came off the bench and had eight assists, doubling his career high in the first half alone with seven. His previous high was three on three occasions.
* Junior Bogdan Bliznyuk scored just five points before fouling out with 3:26 left to play. He entered the game ranked 25th in NCAA Division I with an average of 20.9 points per game. He entered the game with 999 points, and after his first basket of the game became the 20th Eastern player in school history to score 1,000 points.
* True freshman Mason Peatling played 31 minutes and had seven points to go along with season highs of nine rebounds and three blocked shots.
* Sophomore Ty Gibson hit a pair of 3-pointers in the first half and finished with seven points. He entered the game as the Big Sky's third-most accurate 3-point shooter at 53.1 percent (17-of-32).
 
 
Turning Point . . .
 
* Trailing 12-10 early, the Eagles scored five-straight points then followed with a 9-0 run to take a 24-14 lead with 9:34 left. Later, Ty Gibson hit a 3-pointer, Cody Benzel hit one and then Gibson followed with a four-point play to give EWU a 34-20 lead with 4:47 left. The Eagles led 39-25 at halftime, with Jacob Wiley scoring 10 points and Sir Washington dishing out seven assists.
* In the second half, after Idaho cut EWU's lead to 10 with three steals and baskets, Eastern restored order with a 6-0 run. Felix Von Hofe had a 3-pointer to start the run, as Idaho missed six-straight shots and went 5:04 without scoring. Eastern opened its biggest lead of the night at 60-38 with 6:50 to play on a 3-point play by Jacob Wiley.
 
 
Key Stats . . .
 
*  With an 11-of-22 performance, Eastern sank its most 3-point shots in nearly a month since finishing 12-of-22 against Great Falls on Dec. 8. In fact, the Eagles had seven in the first half, matching its best game total in their last four games.
 
 
Team Highlights . . .
 
* Eastern used defense and a balanced offense to open a double-digit lead in the first half, holding Idaho to 26 percent shooting while making 46 percent itself. The Eagles had seven different players score, with five contributing to Eastern's total of seven in the first half.
 
 
Notables . . .
 
* Eastern entered league play with a winning record – only the fifth time that has happened in 30 years in the Big Sky. The impressive start for EWU equals the NCAA Tournament team of 2014-15 (9-4) and the 1985-86 team (9-4) as the only teams to start 8-5 or better in 34 years in NCAA Division I. This year's Eagles were just the sixth team in 34 years to start 5-2 or better, including three under Hayford.
 
* As a result of their early success, the Eagles are the top team in the Big Sky Conference with an RPI of 83 (EWU was a season high 57th on 12/13 in the official NCAA RPI ratings), with Portland State next at 135th. Eastern joined Portland State at 7-4 as the only other league team above the .500 mark heading into conference play. Idaho is currently No. 249 in the RPI. Plus, the Eagles received 10 votes on in the Collegeinsider.com Mid-Major top 25 on Dec. 12 when the Eagles were 7-2.
 
* Since 1996 when Idaho left the Big Sky Conference, the two schools have now played 21 times, with Eastern winning 13 of them. Idaho leads the all-time series 54-28. Since EWU became a NCAA Division I member in the 1983-84 season, EWU is 16-33 against Idaho (8-14 home, 7-15 away, 1-4 neutral). Until falling 66-62 at Idaho on Feb. 27, Eastern had won the last four meetings against Idaho, and hadn't lost since falling 81-79 at home in overtime on Dec. 6, 2012.
 
* EWU remains 6-0 in games decided by six points or fewer and is 4-0 in overtime games, having already set a school record with six extra periods this season. During its seven-game winning streak, six of the victories came by six points or less. Eastern defeated Seattle 80-76 in double overtime on Nov. 22 and then beat Denver in its next game in overtime by an 85-80 score. Two games later, the Eagles played at Seattle in another double-overtime thriller, winning 93-88. Eastern's seventh win in the streak was an 88-86 overtime victory over Morehead State in which the Eagles missed all 13 of its 3-point shots after intermission. The only other time Eastern has played five overtime periods in a single year came in the 1998-99 season when Eastern had four in a 101-100 loss to Weber State on Jan. 16, 1993. The Eagles had no overtime games last season, two in 2014-15, one in 2013-14 and four in 2012-13
 
 
More Comments from Head Coach Jim Hayford . . .
 
On Idaho Comeback: "It was a good thing we built that big lead because we were leaking water coming into the harbor. But the ship held up and we are going back to Cheney with a great road win. I don't know if a lot of Big Sky teams who are going to win here, so it was a great way to start conference play."
 
On Wiley: "He was our pressure release, and we thought he had a quickness advantage on whoever was guarding him. I can think back to the game against Texas when we tried to run a lot of offense through him and he wasn't ready. That shows a lot of growth on Jake's part. He was fantastic."
 
On Von Hofe: "Felix hit some giant shots. We were leaking oil at the beginning of the first half and hit a big three to get it from 10 back to 13, then by the second media timeout we were up by 16. In the second half when everything was going crazy, he hit a big three that pushed it back to nine."
 
On Defense & Rebounding: "We held them to 31 percent shooting, and they were missing so many shots so we had a lot of rebounds. Our defense played really, really well. Down the stretch they got Victor Sanders going, and he showed why he's one of the better players in the league. He showed a lot of will, but our guys stood up and held up under the pressure."