Seniors lead, and the dynamic duo for the Eagles did exactly that.
 
Austin McBroom scored a career-high 35 and Venky Jois added 24 to help the Eastern Washington University men's basketball team power past North Dakota 95-85 Thursday (Feb. 11) at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash.
 
The victory gives the Eagles sole possession of third place in the Big Sky Conference standings with an 8-4 league mark. North Dakota had knocked off the Eagles 79-71 in the second league game of the year for both squads. In the first meeting, North Dakota sank 53 percent of its shots from the field, including 69 percent in the second half.
 
This time, EWU made 52 percent compared to 47 percent for the visitors. Eastern, now winners of its last six games when they've made at least half of its shots, also managed a 38-30 rebounding advantage.
 
Jois led the way on the boards with nine, and also had four blocked shots and five assists. He made all nine of his field goal attempts, including three dunks, to flirt with the school record of 10-of-10. He also sank 6-of-10 free throws, and is now only 76 points from the EWU all-time scoring record. He added to his records for blocks (229) and dunks (144).
 
"That was a really good win for our basketball team against a quality opponent," said Eastern head coach Jim Hayford.
 
"Our two seniors played outstanding and wouldn't be denied. They led us to victory – that's what leadership on the floor looks like. Venky in the second half inside was just unstoppable."
 
 
 
Won-Lost Records . . .  
 
* The Eagles are now 14-10 overall and 8-4 in the league, with a 5-10 record on the road and perfect 9-0 mark at home. In league games, EWU is 6-0 at Reese Court and 2-4 on the road.
 
* North Dakota fell to 12-11 overall and 7-5 in the league.
 
 
 
What It Means . . .
 
* Thursday's game was the team's eighth in the last 10 games since an 0-2 start to the league season. The victory, as well as this Saturday's home game, are extremely important toward EWU's goals of finishing the season with a winning record and, perhaps more importantly, earning one of four first-round byes in the Big Sky Conference Tournament March 8-12 in Reno.
 
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* The Eagles return to Reese Court to face Northern Colorado on Saturday (Feb. 13) at 2 p.m. in a rematch of EWU's league-opening 96-90 loss at UNC on Dec. 31. The Bears made 62 percent of their shots for the game and scored 78 points in the final 27 minutes.
 
* Following this week's home games, Eastern plays its final three regular season league road games – Feb. 18 at Sacramento State, Feb. 20 at Portland State and Feb. 27 at Idaho. The Eagles close the league season at home versus Idaho State on March 3 and Weber State on March 5.
 
 
 
Keys to Game . . .
 
* With starter Julian Harrell playing just nine minutes because of a migraine headache, sophomore Sir Washington and freshmen Cody Benzel and Ty Gibson stepped forward to play 39 quality minutes for EWU. Washington scored eight points and had five rebounds and three assists, and Gibson hit a pair of 3-pointers in the first half and added three rebounds. Benzel hit a pair of baskets in the second half, including a 3-pointer.


 
Top Performers . .
 
* Senior graduate transfer Austin McBroom, eclipsed his previous career high of 33 against Davidson by netting 35 on 9-of-17 shooting from the field. He also had five assists and four rebounds.
 
* Senior Venky Jois came a rebound away from his ninth double-double of the season and 35th of his career. He went into the game ranked fourth in NCAA Division I with a .671 shooting percentage and made all nine of his field goal attempts. The school record is a 10-of-10 performance by Chris White on Feb. 1, 2001, against Montana State.
 
* Sophomore Bogdan Bliznyuk finished with just five points, but also contributed nine rebounds, four assists, a pair of steals and a block. In his previous seven games – starting with the first triple-double in school history on Jan. 16 against Northern Arizona – Bliznyuk averaged 15.3 points, 9.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists, with four performances of at least a double-double.
 
 
 
Turning Point . . .
 
* Ahead by seven in the second half, the Eagles went on an electrifying 18-5 run, capped by a Cody Benzel 3-pointer with 11:30 left that gave EWU a 66-49 advantage. Jois had all three of his dunks in that stretch, as the Eagles led by no less than seven the rest of the way. Eastern clinched it by making 10 free throws in the final 58 seconds, including eight by Austin McBroom.
 
 
 
Key Stats . . .
 
* Eastern is now 11-0 this season when it has a better field goal percentage than its opponent, and 3-10 when it has been out-shot. The Eagles won for the sixth-straight time when they've made at least 50 percent of their shots, finishing 30-of-58 for 51.7 percent with 11 3-pointers. The Eagles, ranked seventh in NCAA Division I entering the game with a season accuracy rate of 49.6 percent, are now 10-2 when making at least 50 percent. The team's average of 10.4 3-pointers per game was also 10th.
 
 
 
Team Highlights . . .
 
 * There were three lead changes and a pair of ties in the early going, but Austin McBroom's 20 first-half points helped the Eagles lead by 10 at halftime. He scored eight points in a 14-0 Eastern run to turn a five-point deficit into a nine-point advantage with 9:15 left in the half. Eastern held the Fighting Hawks without a point for 4:38 in that stretch as UND missed seven-straight shots. The Eagles scored the final seven points of the half, holding North Dakota to 0-of-4 shooting and no points in the final 2:36.
 
 
 
Notables . . .
 
* Senior Venky Jois, only the third player in the 53-year history of the Big Sky Conference to have more than 1,600 points and 900 rebounds in his career, surged closer to the EWU career scoring record. Now with 1,665 points as an Eagle, he is exactly 76 points behind the school record of 1,741 held by Ron Cox (1974-77). Jois' school-record total of 229 blocked shots are 18 from the league record of 247 (Brian Qvale, Montana, 2008-11). Jois also has 940 rebounds in his career to rank third in school history.
 
* Eastern has now led at halftime in 18 of 24 games this season, and has a 14-4 record in those 18 games.
 
* Eastern is now 3-6 all-time against North Dakota, with last year's 102-80 home victory marking EWU's first victory in five tries since UND joined the Big Sky in the 2012-13 season. Until that season, Eastern hadn't played North Dakota since Dec. 11, 1982, when EWU lost 75-71 in Grand Forks. A year earlier, the Eagles beat North Dakota 81-72 in Cheney in the first-ever meeting between the two schools.
 
* Eastern is 8-2 with Julian Harrell in the starting lineup, and the lone losses were 85-71 at Montana State on Jan. 21 and 74-69 at Montana on Jan. 23. Harrell missed EWU's first 13 games of the season with a hand injury.
 
 
 
More Comments from Head Coach Jim Hayford . . .
 
On Contributions from Bench: "Julian was suffering from a migraine headache, and we received great contributions from two freshmen off the bench in Cody Benzel and Ty Gibson. And Sir Washington in 15 minutes really made a difference. When you get great contributions off the bench and leadership from your seniors, that's how you beat a quality opponent by 10. I'm very, very happy."
 
On Eagles After 0-2 Start at UND & UNC: "It's like two separate seasons. We've won eight of our last 10 – anything that happened before that is not even in our memory. We wanted a little payback because even though we weren't playing that well that first weekend, we still should have won that game. We didn't play the last four minutes like we should have. We've been looking forward and not looking back. We've won five-straight and our guys are playing really well. Our practices are going just as well as you see us play in games. Our team is in a really good groove."
 
On Venky Jois Building Program: "Tyler Harvey got a lot of attention last year, but there are some unsung heroes too in the renaissance of Eastern basketball. Venky is going to leave here as the all-time leading scorer and the all-time leader in blocked shots. He's a pre-med major and was selected to the all-academic team for our region. The reason is our program is better is that we were able to build on his back. He's that good of a player and a person. He loves Eastern – he sweats it. He said, 'I will turn this around with you Coach Hayford,' and he's done it. That's why we'll see his number retired in this gym some day."
 
On Austin McBroom Filling Gap When Tyler Harvey Departed a Year Early: "We had a gap in our program, and I don't think there was a graduate transfer in the country than the player we were able to get. He scored 35 points tonight and he's leading the Big Sky in scoring. We lost a player to the NBA, but our team is playing better offensively because we added a player like Austin. I'm really glad he wanted to get his master's in communications here because he's made us a great team. I love them both."