Portland State stole a page from EWU, but the Eagles stole it right back.
 
The Vikings used hot shooting and Eastern Washington University miscues to open a 20-point lead at halftime, but EWU used a 28-16 run in the second half to close the gap before falling 107-91 in a Big Sky Conference men's basketball game Saturday (Feb. 20) at the Stott Center in Portland, Ore.
 
The loss snapped EWU's seven-game winning streak – the school's longest in 12 years -- and ended the school's road winning streak at three games. Eastern, which hadn't lost since Jan. 23, has still won 10 of its last 13 since opening the league season 0-2.
 
Eastern led wire-to-wire two days earlier at Sacramento State in which the Eagles made their first eight shots and 15 of their first 19. The Vikings duplicated that start nearly identically, and went on to out-shoot the Eagles 65 percent to 50 percent for the game.
 
After EWU had a 12-of-16 shooting stretch to cut the lead to 10 with 7:19 to play, Portland State followed with a 12-4 run to pull away. Eastern lost for the first time in its last nine games in which they've made at least half of their shots.
 
Portland State's shooting percentage was the best against the Eagles this season, and the point total for the Vikings eclipsed the 106 EWU allowed in a season-opening loss at Mississippi State.
 
"We'll take a deep breath -- we've won seven of our last eight and 10 of our last 13," said Eastern head coach Jim Hayford. "We have a good team and we're a better offensive team. This loss gets our attention and we'll just push through. You want sweeps and we got a split. The only team that swept this whole trip this year has been Weber State. We'll wake up in the morning and say, 'okay, fair enough.' I'm just disappointed we didn't have more fight from us from the opening bell."
 
 
 
Won-Lost Records . . .  
 
* The Eagles are now 16-11 overall and 10-5 in the league, with a 6-11 record on the road and perfect 10-0 mark at home. In league games, EWU is 7-0 at Reese Court and 3-5 on the road.
 
* Portland State snapped a five-game losing streak and is now 5-9 in the Big Sky and 9-16 overall.
 
 
 
What It Means . . .
 
* The Eagles remain in sole possession of third place in the Big Sky Conference, but failed to gain ground on co-leaders Weber State and Montana (12-2). At 10-5, Eastern is a half-game ahead of Idaho State (9-5, a winner over Southern Utah Saturday), one game up on Idaho (9-6, a loser at Sacramento State) and 1 1/2 games ahead of North Dakota (8-6, a winner over Northern Colorado). The top four finishers in the conference in the regular season earn first-round byes in the Big Sky Conference Tournament March 8-12 in Reno.
 
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* Eastern plays its lone game next week on Feb. 27 at Idaho, which takes place at 1 p.m. at Memorial Gym on the UI campus. The Eagles close the league season at home versus Idaho State on March 3 and Weber State on March 5.
 
 
 
Keys to Game . . .
 
* Portland State made its first eight shots and 18 of its first 25 to open an early 14-point advantage. The Vikings led at halftime 54-34, the most points EWU has allowed in the first half this season since allowing Mississippi State to score 58 to open the season. They were also the third-most allowed in a half overall. In EWU's previous 112-83 win over PSU, the Eagles led 56-32 at intermission.
 
 
 
Top Performers . . .
 
* Senior Venky Jois made 9-of-11 shots to finish with 20 points and six rebounds. He went into the game ranked second in NCAA Division I with a .692 shooting percentage and has made 31 of his last 36 shots in the last four games. He has 36 career double-doubles, 10 this season and nine in his last 16 games. The two times he hasn't had a double-double in his previous eight games he was a rebound shy.
 
* Senior graduate transfer Austin McBroom scored 36 points on 11-of-22 shooting from the field overall, 3-of-9 from the 3-point stripe and a perfect 11-of-11 at the free throw line. He also had three assists.
 
* Junior Felix Von Hofe chipped in 11 with a trio of 3-pointers.
 
* Sophomore Bogdan Bliznyuk finished with 12 points and seven rebounds.
 
* Sophomore Sir Washington chipped in six points. One game earlier against Sacramento State, he made 7-of-10 shots from the field to finish with 15 points and equal his career high.
 
 
 
Turning Point . . .
 
* After PSU opened its largest lead of the game at 71-49 with 13:36 to play, Eastern got hot and went on a 28-16 scoring run to cut the lead 10 with 7:19 to play on a . That capped a 12-of-16 shooting stretch for the Eagles. Portland State followed with a 12-4 run to pull away, and led by as many as 19 the rest of the way.
 
 
 
Key Stats . . .
 
* Eastern trailed for 37:50 out of 40 minutes, leading for just 48 seconds and the game was tied for the other 1:22. During its seven-game winning streak, the Eagles led 93 percent of the time and 91 percent in their last 10 wins. In the earlier meeting, Eastern led for 39:13 against PSU, opening a double-digit lead it never relinquished at 16-4 just 3:40 into the game, and led by 20 or more for the last 26:21 of the game and 27:13 total.
 
* Cameron Forte, a 6-foot-7, 220-pound graduate transfer from Georgia, scored 32 points and had nine rebounds for the Vikings. In the earlier meeting, he scored nearly half of his team's points with 37 to go along with 13 rebounds. He has made 27-of-44 field goals and 15-of-27 free throws in two games this season against EWU. He entered the game just ahead of Eastern's Venky Jois in season scoring (17.8 and 16.8) and rebounding (9.3 and 9.0), respectively.
 
 
 
Team Highlights . . .
 
* Eastern's seven-game winning streak is its best since the 2003-04 season when the Eagles won 11 in a row – all during conference play. Eastern's longest winning streak during last year's 26-9 campaign was six games. Both the 2004 and 2015 squads advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
 
* Jois scored EWU's first four points against the Vikings to go over the 1,700-point mark in his career, and now has a total of 1,717 -- only 24 points behind the EWU career record of 1,741. With 969 career rebounds, Jois also moved into fifth all-time in the league in combined points and rebounds with 26 against the Vikings. He has 2,686 total, passing Jim Potter who had 2,673 from 1993-95 (1,810 points, 863 rebounds).
 
* Eastern is now 13-0 this season when it has a better field goal percentage than its opponent, and 3-11 when it has been out-shot. Eastern is now 13-2 this season when making at least 50 percent.
 
 
 
Notables . . .
 
* Since Eastern became a member of NCAA Division I in the 1983-84 season, the Eagles are now 20-22 versus the Vikings. All of the meetings have come since the 1996-97 school year when PSU joined the Big Sky Conference, and Eastern is 13-8 in Cheney and 7-13 against PSU in Portland (0-1 on neutral courts) since then. The Vikings have a 25-21 edge in the overall series.
 
* Earlier this season on a night they made a school-record 20 3-pointers, the Eagles jumped out to a 21-4 lead and had a 10-point lead or larger for all but four minutes in an overwhelming 112-83 victory over Portland State in a Big Sky game Jan. 28 at Reese Court. Eastern sank a season-high 64 percent of its shots from the field, including 20-of-31 3-point attempts (62 percent). The Eagles broke the previous record of 18 3-pointers set against New Hope on Dec. 4, 2010. Eight Eagles made 3-pointers and six Eagles scored in double figures, led by the 25 of Austin McBroom and 23 by Venky Jois. Although Portland State's Cameron Forte had a monster game with 37 points and 13 rebounds, the Eagles held PSU to 34.3 percent shooting in the first half and led at intermission 56-32. Eastern's largest lead of 36 came with 15:11 left at 74-38 after an 18-6 run to open the second half. Sophomore Bogdan Bliznyuk was a box score stuffer, finishing with 11 points, seven rebounds, six assists, five steals and four blocked shots. Juniors Julian Harrell and Felix Von Hofe each scored 16, and sophomore Sir Washington came off the bench to score 10 points in 16 minutes. Eastern made seven of its first eight shots in the game and ended up making 66 percent of its shots in the first half and 62 percent after halftime. The 63.8 percent accuracy bettered Eastern's other two 60-percent shooting nights this season – 63.3 versus George Fox and 61.3 against Southern Utah.
 
 
 
More Comments from Head Coach Jim Hayford . . .
 
On Portland State's Hot Shooting: "We congratulate Portland State – they played really well. We had won 10 of our last 12 and hadn't played defense like this in a long time. We had to call an early timeout because they scored their first few trips down the court. It was just really disappointing. Sometimes it's harder to coach through success than failure – failure keeps you hungry and losing keeps you on point. We haven't tasted that disappointment in a month. I think we can coach and turn this into a good thing. We weren't hungry. When we are at our best we are really focused on defense and getting our energy from that, and not worrying about scoring or not. We've been coaching to try to avoid this, but it showed its head tonight. We'll give our players a couple of days to get their bodies fresh – fortunately we have a long week to prepare for Idaho. We'll fix it."
 
On PSU Game: "Venky and Austin were very solid offensively. We have to shoot it a little better. We made 50 percent of our shots and 80 percent of our free throws, but we turned it over and turnovers created easy baskets. That increased the field goal percentage for your opponent, and we weren't getting stops and that increased it. Forte is a beast inside so you know they are going to have a high percentage there. They had a really nice pull-up game – they must have made 10 15-17 foot baskets, which you don't see that much. But that happens when you let a team get into a rhythm."
 
On Getting Rest Before Idaho Game: "It's a hard thing, because what we were missing tonight was toughness. Yes, they do have to have their legs, but you can't go so easy that when it's time jump into the ring you aren't ready to take game punches. We'll find that fine balance."
 
On Losing Ground on League Leaders: "We wanted to keep putting some heat on the teams above us. That's a little bit more removed now. The most precious thing you fight for is a league championship, because it shows over time how you do against your peers. It's kind of a bummer that in the next two weeks we will won't be coaching with that as a possibility. But the reality of it – and what we learned last year -- is that it really matters what you do in the conference tournament. We need to keep this uptick that our team has been on until we hit this bump tonight. I was just disappointed that we didn't come out with some fight and resistance. It will be a tough night of sleep, but the sun will come up tomorrow and we'll make our team better."