A gutty, sensational first half just wasn't enough for the Eastern Washington University men's basketball team to advance in the College Basketball Invitational.
Playing without the school's all-time leader scorer because of an injured knee, the Eagles had an inspiring performance to lead 45-43 at halftime, but faltered in the second half and lost 85-70 to Nevada Monday (March 21) in the quarterfinals of the CBI at the Lawlor Events Center in Reno, Nevada.
Eagle senior
Venky Jois was unable to play because of a sore knee, but the Eagles gutted out a first-half performance that included 51 percent shooting and a 7-of-14 performance from the 3-point stripe. In the process of making 13 3-pointers in the game to give them 356 for the season, the Eagles shattered the previous Big Sky Conference and school records of 344 3-pointers set by last year's squad.
"The first half was the game we wanted to play," said Eastern head coach
Jim Hayford. "We just couldn't sustain it in the second half."
The Eagles missed their first 10 shots to start the second half, and a resulting 13-0 Wolf Pack run gave Nevada a lead it would never relinquish. An 11-0 run later in the half put the game away. In the first half alone, there were 12 lead changes and eight ties, and the 13 lead changes in the game were a season high and the nine ties were the second-most of the year for the Eagles.
"Credit Nevada – they played a very good game and shot the ball well against our zone," said Hayford. "We knew if we were going to win here we would have to win a shootout. It was going to have to be the first half times two. Then we missed our first 10 shots of the second half. One was a bad shot but the others were good shots – we just didn't make them. That put our backs against the wall. We did show some fight to come back, but we had only two interior baskets in the second half. They were able to lean out on us and we weren't able to get to the rim."
Three-point shooting marksmen
Felix Von Hofe and
Austin McBroom led the way with 20 and 17 points, respectively. McBroom had one 3-pointer to give him 115 3-pointers this season to rank third in Big Sky history and second in school history. Von Hofe became the 10th player in Big Sky Conference history to make 100 treys, finishing with six against Nevada and 105 on the season. Von Hofe ranks seventh in Big Sky history, and Eastern players now own five of the 10 performances of 100 or more.
Won-Lost Records . . . * Eastern ends its season with an 18-16 record, including a 1-1 mark in the CBI which followed a 1-1 record in the Big Sky Conference Tournament. Eastern has had its most victories (44) in back-to-back seasons in EWU's 33 seasons as a member of NCAA Division I. The 18 victories equaled Eastern's third-most since becoming a member of NCAA Division I in the 1983-84 season, and the second-most since becoming a Big Sky Conference member in the 1987-88 school year.
* Led by first-year head coach Eric Musselman, Nevada is 21-13, including a 3-0 mark against Big Sky Conference foes (83-62 over Montana State on Nov. 15 and 76-73 over Portland State on Nov. 25). Eastern did not play a member of the Mountain West Conference until taking on the Wolf Back.
* In the first round of the CBI, Eastern scored 50 second-half points to surge past Pepperdine 79-72, while Nevada came from behind to beat Montana 79-75. Eastern scored half of that total – 25 points – in the second half of the loss to Nevada.
What It Means . . . * While the season ends for the Eagles, Nevada advances to play Vermont in the semifinals of the CBI. The Catamounts defeated Seattle 73-54 in another quarterfinal in Seattle. Morehead State (82-72 over Duquesne) and Ohio (72-67 over UNC Greensboro) also advanced to the semifinals.
What's Next . . . * The CBI is a single-elimination tournament up until the "best-of-three" Championship Series, with all games played at campus sites. The semifinal round will be played on Wednesday, March 23. The Championship Series is a best-of-three in which one team will host two of the three games. Those games will be played on March 28, March 30, and April 1.
Keys to Game . . . * Eastern's shooting of 51 percent in the first half was what the Eagles came to expect this season. But the 12-straight misses spanning halftime was unlike Eastern. The Eagles entered the game ranked 14th in NCAA Division I in field goal percentage at 48.5 percent. Eastern made only 29 percent of his shots in the second half, including only 2-of-11 two-point attempts (18 percent).
Top Performers . . . * Junior
Felix Von Hofe led Eastern with 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the 3-point stripe, and also had four rebounds and a pair of steals. He entered the game ranked 21st nationally with an average of 3.09 3-pointers per game.
* In his 130th game as a collegian, senior graduate transfer
Austin McBroom finished with 17 points – all in the first half – and had seven assists and six rebounds. He was selected as an All-Big Sky Conference second team choice. He went into the game ranked fourth in NCAA Division I in 3-pointers per game (3.56) and 17th in scoring (21.1).
* Junior
Julian Harrell had 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field, including 3-of-5 3-point attempts.
Turning Point . . . * Even as damaging as its 13-0 run to start the second half was, the Eagles were still within five with 10:23 to play. But the Wolf Pack followed with an 11-0 run. Eastern went 6:43 without scoring during the first Nevada run, then had a 4:45 drought during the next run.
Key Stats . . . * The Eagles made 13-of-31 3-point attempts in the game for 42 percent, giving Eastern Big Sky Conference and school records with 356 treys for the season. The previous record was 344 set a year ago by EWU.
* Nevada out-rebounded Eastern 45-27, including a dominating 29-9 advantage in the second half. The Wolf Pack finished with 19 second-chance points to Eastern's seven (all in the second half).
Team Highlights . . . * In a thrilling back-and forth game, the biggest lead for either team in the first half was six points. That was a 29-23 lead for Nevada with 9:41 to play, which was wiped out by a 10-2 run by the Eagles.
Sir Washington had a pair of 3-pointers during the Eagle spurt.
Notables . . . * Two-time first team All-Big Sky selection
Venky Jois, who is just the third player in Big Sky Conference history to score more than 1,600 points and haul down at least 900 rebounds, finished his career with a school-record 1,803 points to rank 11th in Big Sky history. His 1,015 rebounds were fifth in league history, and his 240 blocks were just behind the league record of 247. He set eight school records, including field goal percentage in a season (68.3 percent entering the game to rank second in NCAA Division I).
* Eastern, now 1-4 in national postseason games as a member of NCAA Division I, has also participated in the NCAA Tournament in 2004 and 2015, and the NIT in 2003. In 2003, Eastern fell to Wyoming 78-71 in the first round of the NIT in 2003, then lost 75-56 to Oklahoma State in the NCAA Tournament in Kansas City, Mo., a year later. Last season, after winning the Big Sky Conference Tournament title in Missoula, Eastern fell to 22nd-ranked Georgetown 84-74.
* This is the eighth national post-season tournament
Jim Hayford has coached in. Besides last year's NCAA Tournament, he coached Whitworth in six NCAA Division III Tournaments (2003, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011). He now is 7-8 in national tourney games, including an Elite Eight appearance in his final season at Whitworth in 2011.
* Eastern finished 14-0 this season when it has a better field goal percentage than its opponent, and 4-16 when it has be out-shot.
* With 115 3-pointers this season, senior graduate transfer
Austin McBroom finished third among the 10 performances in Big Sky Conference history with at least 100.
Felix Von Hofe closed the year with 105 (seventh), giving the Eagles five of those 10 performances (Shannon Taylor 103 in 1999,
Tyler Harvey 109 in 2014 and Harvey a Big Sky-record 128 in 2015). McBroom finished with a 21.0 scoring average to currently rank as the fifth-best in school history and his 692 total points finished fourth all-time.
More Comments from Head Coach Jim Hayford . . . On Playing Without Venky Jois: "We don't make any excuses. Normally the balance to that outside shooting is Venky inside, but we didn't have him. I thought Jesse (Hunt) and Kyle (Reid) really fought hard and did the best he could. And we had Sir (Washington) in there and he had a few shots blocked, but he was trying. Without Venky they are probably the better team."
On Seniors: "I'm very proud of what our team accomplished. We've built a good program and we are going to keep building it. Our seniors gave us great effort. Austin came in and with one year led the league in scoring and adjusted right into our offense. Venky leaves as the all-time leading scorer in school history. Kyle played his best game against Pepperdine and gave Eastern is first postseason win in history. In the lockerroom we were able to congratulate and thank our three seniors because they gave us a lot."
On 18 Victories: "I just feel amazing support and I'm grateful for all our fans. You look at a 30-year history and see this is the second-best season we've had for total wins as a member of the Big Sky. We have to thank our players – they gave it everything they had."
On Wolf Pack: "Nevada played really well. They hit the boards hard, Oliver is going to be a NBA polayer and Criswell shot the ball better than he has all season. We got the looks we wanted, we just didn't make them and that put our backs against the wall. It didn't go our way and obviously it was a hard environment to play in. But our guys fed off it for the first half."
