Following the same blueprint during its recent hot stretch, the Eastern Washington University men's basketball team recorded another wire-to-wire victory Saturday (Feb. 13) at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash.
 
With senior graduate transfer Austin McBroom leading the way with his second-straight performance of 35+ points, the Eagles won for the sixth-straight time and remained unbeaten at home with a 97-80 victory over Northern Colorado in a Big Sky Conference rematch.
 
The victory, which featured a 19-0 run in the opening minutes, solidifies Eastern's hold on third place in the Big Sky Conference standings with a 9-4 league mark. Eastern has won nine of its last 11 since opening the league season 0-2, including a 96-90 loss at UNC on Dec. 31.
 
Senior Venky Jois contributed his 35th career double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds, and the Eagles sank 56 percent of their shots in the game – including 67 percent in the second half. Eastern has now won its last seven games when they've made at least half of its shots.
 
The victory completed a weekend sweep of two teams that beat the Eagles to open conference play. McBroom finished with a combined 72 points in two games, the most back-to-back in Big Sky play in school history.
 
"What a great win and for Austin to have 72 points in two games," said Eastern head coach Jim Hayford. "Both games were similar – we opened up a big lead and the other team wouldn't let the game end. We kept pushing and had two double-digit wins over teams that defeated us earlier. I think it shows we are improving a lot."
 
 
 
Won-Lost Records . . .  
 
* The Eagles are now 15-10 overall and 9-4 in the league, with a 5-10 record on the road and perfect 10-0 mark at home. In league games, EWU is 7-0 at Reese Court and 2-4 on the road.
 
* Northern Colorado, one of the team chasing one of the top four seeds in the upcoming league tournament, are now 5-8 in the Big Sky and 8-17 overall. The Bears now have a four-game losing streak after having won four in a row. On a night Eastern knocked off North Dakota 95-85, UNC fell at Idaho 73-67 on Thursday (Feb. 11).
 
 
 
What It Means . . .
 
* With three upcoming games on the road, winning at home for the seventh time in seven league games was important to help EWU stay in the top four in the conference and earn one of four first-round byes in the Big Sky Conference Tournament March 8-12 in Reno. Entering action Saturday, just one game separated sixth from third in the standings, with two other teams EWU has lost to this season (Montana State and Northern Colorado) lurking in the shadows.
 
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* 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 . . .
 
* Eastern continued its dominance at Reese Court, where Eastern has won all 10 games this season. The Eagles have out-scored opponents by an average score of 96-72 while out-shooting opponents 55 percent to 43 percent. The Eagles have also doubled the 3-point output of their opponents – 123-55 – while sinking 43 percent of their treys to just 35 percent for opponents. On Saturday, Eastern nearly duplicated all of those statistics, out-shooting the Bears 56 percent to 43 percent, and making 14-of-33 pointers (44 percent) compared to just 5-of-17 for UNC (29 percent).


 
Top Performers . . .
 
* Senior graduate transfer Austin McBroom made 10-of-16 shots from the field, 7-of-12 from the 3-point stripe and 10-of-11 from the free throw line to finish with 37 points. Including Thursday's 35-point outing – his previous career high – McBroom made 19-of-33 shots (58 percent), 12-of-20 3-pointers (60 percent) and 22-of-25 free throws (88 percent) in the sweep. He also had six assists and six rebounds on Saturday, giving him 11 and 10, respectively in the two games.
 
* Senior Venky Jois had his ninth double-double of the season and 35th of his career, finishing with 14 points and 10 rebounds on 5-of-6 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 from the free throw stripe. He went into the game ranked second in NCAA Division I with a .684 shooting percentage, and in the weekend sweep made all but one of his 15 field goal attempts. He also had a pair of blocked shots against the Bears.
 
* Sophomore Bogdan Bliznyuk scored 12 points in the first half, and finished with 18. He also had eight rebounds, three assists and a pair of blocked shots.
 
* Junior Felix Von Hofe nailed a trio of 3-pointers and finished with nine points, three rebounds and equaled his career high with four assists.
 
 
 
Turning Point . . .
 
* Eastern fell behind 2-0, but reeled off 19 unanswered points to take an early 19-2 advantage. Austin McBroom scored eight points, Bogdan Bliznyuk had six and Julian Harrell scored the other five for the Eagles in the early stretch in which UNC missed nine-straight shots. The lead ballooned 28 at 48-20 on a 3-pointer by McBroom with 4:12 to play. Eastern missed six-straight shots near the end of the half to allow the Bears to go on an 11-0 run and pull within 51-31 at halftime. Eastern led by no less than 15 and by as many as 24 in the second half.
 
 
 
Key Stats . . .
 
* Senior graduate transfer Austin McBroom followed a 35-point outing with 37, which is the third time in the last two years an Eagle has scored at least 72 points in back-to-back games. But it's the most in back-to-back Big Sky Conference games in school history, besting the 70 Rodney Stuckey, now with the Indiana Pacers in the NBA, had late in the 2006-07 season against Weber State (34) and Portland State (36). Last season, Venky Jois had 38 each in back-to-back games versus Eastern Oregon and Seattle, then Tyler Harvey had a total of 73 in consecutive games versus L-C State (34) and Weber State (39). The most Harvey had in back-to-back league games was 61 last year against Northern Colorado (37) and North Dakota (24).
 
 
 
Team Highlights . . .
 
* 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, moved closer to the EWU career scoring record. Now with 1,679 points as an Eagle, he is only 62 points behind the school record of 1,741 held by Ron Cox (1974-77). Jois' school-record total of 231 blocked shots are 16 from the league record of 247 (Brian Qvale, Montana, 2008-11). Jois also has 950 rebounds in his career to rank third in school history and moved up one spot to sixth all-time in the Big Sky, and moved up one spot to 13th in career scoring. He already holds school records for dunks (145) and free throws attempted (616).
 
 
 
Notables . . .
 
* Eastern has now led for 220:23 out of 240 total minutes – 92 percent – during its six-game winning streak, and only trailed for 7:17 (tied for the other 12:20).  Eastern has now led for 323:53 out of 360 minutes – 90 percent -- in its last nine victories.  In its seven league home games, Eastern has led for 260:51 out of 280 minutes (93 percent).
 
* Eastern is now 12-0 this season when it has a better field goal percentage than its opponent, and 3-10 when it has been out-shot.
 
* Eastern has now led at halftime in 19 of 25 games this season, and has a 15-4 record in those 19 games.
 
* Eastern is 9-2 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.
 
* The Eagles are 10-10 all-time versus UNC (7-3 in Cheney, 3-7 in Greeley), with the first meeting taking place on Dec. 20, 1971, when Eastern beat the Bears 76-68 in Greeley, Colo. Since then, all of the meetings have been with EWU as a member of NCAA Division I (since 1983-84), starting in the 2006-07 season when the Bears became a Big Sky Conference member. Last year, EWU played the Bears just once, winning 95-85 in Cheney.
 
                                  
 
More Comments from Head Coach Jim Hayford . . .
 
On Venky Jois: "I doubt there was a possession that Venky didn't get physically pushed, moved or hit the whole night. I know he was extremely frustrated. But he kept his cool all the way through and still had a double-double."
 
On Shooting Prowess: "We recruit to shoot – I'm not surprised by our great shooting nights. If you come to practice and watch these players, they can really shoot it. We put a premium on it and it's one of the standards of our offense. When we are shooting well it sets up our drive game and our post play. We obviously came out on fire – it was a great week."
 
On Austin McBroom: "Austin only had one day of practice – he's battling an injury. We kept him out of practice Monday and Tuesday. I guess we'll only let him practice one day the rest of the year because with a little rest, he's good for averaging 36 per game."
 
On Sweep and Beyond: "We're really happy with the sweep, and now it's time to match last week's road wins with some more road wins. That's what has our attention."
 
On Leading Wire-to-Wire With Double-Digit Wins Throughout: "It's been a consistent theme. We've even had double-digit wins in our last two road wins too. Our players are just really dialed-in on our game plans, our scouting reports and our execution. When other teams have to scout us, they have to pick their poison – what do they want to take away? Our team is doing a really smart job of realizing what that opens up. Our players deserve a lot of credit for not just playing hard but playing smart."