After a stressful finals week, a less stressful basketball game is appreciated.
 
The Eastern Washington University men's basketball team jumped out to a 27-2 lead and went on to beat Great Falls handily 103-76 in non-conference game Thursday (Dec. 8) at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash.
 
The Eagles had a 59-percent to 47-percent shooting advantage over the Argos, a member of the Frontier Conference in the NAIA. The finals week romp followed five games Eastern won by a collective total of 24 points and featured five overtime periods.
 
Sophomore Ty Gibson scored 13 points in a less than four minute span in the first half and finished with a career-high 19 points. He led four players in double figures, including two-time Big Sky Conference Player of the Week Bogdan Bliznyuk with 18 points and four assists. True freshman Mason Peatling caught the eye of head coach Jim Hayford, finishing with five points, three assists and a pair of rebounds.
 
"Every time we put our uniform on we want to win and we did that," said Hayford. "Ty obviously had a crazy shooting night for the amount of minutes he played. It was fun to see him play so well. I thought Mason played really well inside as well."
 
The victory was Eastern's sixth in a row, with the first five won by six points or less. Now 7-2, Eastern becomes just the third team in EWU's 34-year history as a member of NCAA Division I to have a 7-2 or better start, joining the 2014-15 NCAA Tournament team as the only squads to achieve that feat.
 
 "I kind of thought before the game it would nice to have a more relaxed game," said Hayford, whose team was out-scored 54-52 in the second half. "But you put a lot of work and investment into your players, so most of all you want to see what players are going to do with the opportunities. We want to see them do really good things, and we had a great offensive night. We just lost some defensive intensity in the second half."
 
 
Won-Lost Records . . .  
 
* The Eagles, who extended their winning streak to five games, are now 7-2. As a result of their early success, the Eagles entered the Great Falls game as the top team in the Big Sky Conference with an RPI of 81 (season-high 66th on Dec. 6). In addition, Eastern entered with the best non-conference record among the 12 Big Sky Conference schools (North Dakota is 5-2).
* Also 7-2, Great Falls is on a three-game road trip against NCAA Division I foes, with all three counting as exhibitions for the Argos and not counting in their season record or statistics. They lost 84-51 to Utah State on Tuesday (Dec. 6) and also play at Seattle on Saturday (Dec. 10). Four players are averaging in double figures in scoring, led by 6-foot-3 guard Sergio Berkley with an 11.8 average.
 
 
What It Means . . .
 
* Only the NCAA Tournament team of 2014-15 has had a better start than in 34 years in NCAA Division I. Also coached by Jim Hayford, that team opened the year 8-1 and finished 26-9 after advancing to Eastern's second NCAA Tournament in school history. That squad lost its next three and were 8-4 at one point before going 14-4 in league play. This year's Eagles were just the sixth team in 34 years to start 5-2 or better, including three under Hayford.
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* Morehead State, a member of the Ohio Valley Conference, comes to Cheney on Tuesday (Dec. 13) in another 6:05 p.m. game at Reese Court. Also the Eagles, they are 2-5 and play at Lipscomb on Saturday (Dec. 10) before taking on the EWU Eagles. Morehead State was 23-14 a year ago and advanced to the title series of the College Basketball Invitational which Eastern also participated in. Morehead State made it to the finals of the CBI before losing to Nevada in three games. Nevada ended EWU's season last year with an 85-70 victory in Reno in the quarterfinals of the CBI. This season, Morehead State picked up a pair of wins to begin the year, but has lost its last five. Xavier Moon leads the MSU with a 12.1 scoring average.
 
 
Keys to Game . . .
 
* A total of 13 Eagles played, and 11 scored. No Eastern player had more than 30 minutes played, and 13 played at least 14 minutes. Five Eagles scored at least eight points.
 
 
Top Performers . . .
 
* Sophomore Ty Gibson finished with 19 points in just 15 minutes of playing time, eclipsing his previous high of 10 last year versus Southern Utah and on Nov. 27 this season versus San Francisco. He scored 13 points in a 3:43 stretch in the first half with four three-pointers and a free throw, helping turn a 24-2 lead into a 38-4 bulge. Gibson made 6-of-7 shots from the field – all 3-point attempts – and made all three of his free throws.
* Junior Bogdan Bliznyuk finished with 18 points and four rebounds after winning Big Sky Conference Player of the Week honors the last two weeks. He made 6-of-9 shots from the field and all six of his free throws.
* Senior Felix Von Hofe made 3-of-7 3-pointers and finished with 13 points.
* Senior graduate transfer Jacob Wiley had 10 points, six rebounds, a blocked shot and two dunks in 26 minutes of action.
 
 
Turning Point . . .
 
* Eastern led from start to finish in winning for the second-straight year by a lopsided margin over the Argos. Last year's meeting was the first-ever between the two schools, and EWU romped 104-64 on Dec. 6, 2015. Eight of the 10 EWU players who played in that game were either freshmen or sophomores. Then redshirt freshman Cody Benzel scored a career-high 23 points with seven 3-pointers to lead seven Eagles in double figures.
 
 
Key Stats . . .
 
* Eastern had a 12-of-18 shooting stretch early in the game, while Great Falls missed its first 10 shots. The Eagles made 66 percent of their shots in the second half and 59 percent in the game, making 12-of-22 3-pointers for 55 percent. Eastern's defense held Great Falls to 28 percent in the first half, and 47 percent in the game. Eastern had only eight turnovers compared to 19 for UGF.
 
 
Team Highlights . . .
 
* The Eagles had runs of 22-0 and 12-0 in the early going to open a 39-4 lead. The Eagles held the Argos to one field goal in the first 13:36 of the game. Eastern led by as many as 40 (86-46) and no less than 26 the rest of the way. Eastern finished with 100 points for the first time this season and 72nd time in school history, hitting the century mark on a 3-point play by redshirt freshman Grant Gibb.
 
 
Notables . . .
 
* The Eagles went to the free throw line 21 times, sinking 17 for 81 percent. Eastern entered the game making 84.1 percent thus far to rank second in the nation behind Notre Dame at 85.9 percent. Bogdan Bliznyuk made all six of his free throw attempts after entering the game 14th in NCAA Division I at 94.3 percent.
 
* With a trio of 3-pointers against Great Galls, Felix Von Hofe now has 198 in his career. He recently moved past the 184 of Marc Axton (2002-05) and is now 12 from the No. 2 position (210, Parker Kelly 2012-15). Von Hofe is 62 from the record set by his former teammate Tyler Harvey from 2013-15 with 260.
 
 
More Comments from Head Coach Jim Hayford . . .
 
On Great Falls Win: "We played the game we wanted to play in the first half. We showed we aren't at the place maturity-wise to go in and play with the intensity you need in the second half. But that's hard when you are up by 30. The bottom line is everybody got to play and everybody got a lot of experience. We'll use this game video to get a lot better, because Morehead State is going to be a really good opponent on Tuesday night. Now we need to go get ready for them."
 
On Opportunities for Reserves: "We give them respect – they played a good second half. (But in a game like this) what you are doing is giving every player an opportunity – you are on the court and you are in an Eastern uniform, what are you going to do with it? You just want to see guys make the most of it. Our default in our recruiting is highly-skilled offensive players. I'm not surprised at all that Ty played this well. Coming out of high school, he was one of the best players you are going to get out of one of the state's best leagues, the KingCo. A lot times you get in a game like this and players are trying to earn respect and earn more playing time just with their offensive performance. But we have to match that with how we played defense as well. I thought Ty did play a pretty complete all-around game – he and Mason."
 
On Ty Gibson this Season: "Ty has had big minutes in all of our games. He came up huge at the end of the San Francisco game. He's been on the court at some clutch times. I think tonight gave us more of a look at Fuzzy Wearne and Geremy McKay, and I thought Grant Gibb played well with the minutes he was presented as well."