The record was the bright spot on the night.
 
Senior Venky Jois broke Eastern Washington University's 39-year-old career scoring record, but the Eagles fell short at home against Idaho State in a Big Sky Conference men's basketball game and fell to the Bengals 75-71 Thursday (March 3) at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash.
 
Jois finished with a team-high 21 points and 11 rebounds to register the 37th double-double of his career. He now has 1,754 points in his career to pass the previous school record of 1,741 set by Ron Cox from 1974-77. Cox was in attendance at Thursday's game, and presented Jois with the game ball and two mementos to commemorate the historic night.
 
"It was a great crowd and I thank them for the support they gave me and our team tonight," said Jois following the game.
 
Eastern had its worst shooting night of the year at home, and also had 12 turnovers that turned into 16 points for the Bengals. The Eagles made 43.5 percent from the field, 28.6 percent from the 3-point arc and 47 percent from the free throw line.
 
Eastern, which suffered its first loss at home this season in 11 games, has assured itself of having to play in the opening round of the upcoming Big Sky Conference Tournament. Eastern closes the regular season on Senior Day at Reese Court this Saturday (March 5) versus Big Sky Conference leader Weber State at 2:05 p.m. Pacific time, and will play on Tuesday (March 8) in the opening round of the tournament as either the fifth or sixth seed.
 
"Our team believes that they can beat anybody, but they also know they can lose to anybody," said Eastern head coach Jim Hayford. "Because we have some players who have been there, I believe we are going to find another gear when we get to Reno. That's what we're going to bank on. They know what it's about and they've had success in that tournament. I'm going to put my eggs in that basket."
 
 
 
Won-Lost Records . . .  
 
* The Eagles are now 16-13 overall and 10-7 in the league, with a 6-12 record on the road and 11-1 mark at home. In league games, EWU is 7-1 at Reese Court and 3-6 on the road.
 
* The Bengals are 16-13 overall and 11-6 in the league, and are now 5-9 on opponent home courts this season.
 
 
 
What It Means . . .
 
* The loss drops Eastern out of a third-place tie in the Big Sky Conference standings, and coupled with Idaho's 62-58 victory over Weber State Thursday, now means the Eagles will finish either fifth or sixth in the final regular season standings. There are still six games to play in the league season on Saturday (March 5) – four of them at night. Those will determine seedings for the Big Sky Conference Tournament, which takes place March 8-12 in Reno, Nevada, and includes all 12 league teams. The top four seeds receive first-round byes, otherwise, the other eight teams will play on the first day of the tournament on Tuesday, March 8, and will need to win four games in five days to win the league title and the NCAA berth that goes with it.
 
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* Eastern's Senior Day home finale on March 5 is against Weber State, which is battling Montana at the top of the league standings. Weber State is 14-3 after a 62-58 loss to Idaho Thursday, while the Grizzlies are also 14-3 after a 71-46 home romp over North Dakota. The Wildcats beat Montana earlier this season in the lone meeting between the two teams, so they would have the tiebreaker advantage in the event of a tie for the No. 1 seed into the tourney.
 
 
 
Keys to Game . . .
 
* Idaho State out-shot Eastern 46 percent to 43 percent, and also made 22-of-32 free throws (69 percent) compared to just 9-of-19 (47 percent) for the Eagles. Idaho State was paced by Ethan Telfair, who finished with 31 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. He made 9-of-13 shots from the field and 13-of-15 free throws.
 
 
 
Top Performers . . .
 
* Senior Venky Jois made 10-of-13 shots from the field and had 21 points and 11 rebounds. He also had a pair of blocked shots and two steals, but made only 1-of-10 free throws. He went into the game ranked second in NCAA Division I with a .697 shooting percentage and has now made 48 of his last 59 shots in the last six games. He has 37 career double-doubles, 11 this season and 10 in his last 18 games.
 
* In his 125th game as a collegian, senior graduate transfer Austin McBroom finished with 13 points and a pair of assists. He made only 4-of-13 field goals, including 3-of-8 3-pointers.
 
* Sophomore Bogdan Bliznyuk was perfect from the line (4-of-4), but was 4-of-10 from the field to finish with 12 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
 
* Junior Felix Von Hofe chipped in nine with a trio of 3-pointers (3-of-11).]
 
* Freshman Jesse Hunt came off the bench to score seven points and get two steals and a pair of rebounds in seven minutes of action. Fellow freshman Cody Benzel scored four points and had two rebounds and two steals as well.
 
 
 
Turning Point . . .
 
* After cutting the lead to 71-66 with 1:27 to play, Eastern got a pair of stops, but ended up turning ball over both times. The second turnover, an offensive foul whistled on Bogdan Bliznyuk with 37 seconds left, led to pair of free throws by Ethan Telfair. Telfair added two more free throws with 16 seconds remaining.
 
 
 
Key Stats . . .
 
* Only twice this season in 10 previous home games had the Eagles failed to make at least 50 percent of their shots. The previous low prior to Thursday was 44.6 percent against Seattle on Nov. 18, 2015. In those previous 10 games, the Eagles out-scored opponents by an average score of 96-72 while out-shooting opponents 55 percent to 43 percent. The Eagles also doubled the 3-point output of their opponents – 123-55 – while sinking 43 percent of their treys to just 35 percent for opponents. In its six league home games, Eastern led for 223:38 out of 240 minutes (93 percent).
 
 
 
Team Highlights . . .
 
* Eastern needed a 12-0 run in the first half to erase and uncharacteristic start. The Eagles made just one of their first seven shots and 5-of-20 to fall behind early by as many as nine points. Eastern then followed with a 12-0 run to take the lead, capped by a 3-pointer by freshman Jesse Hunt, who scored seven points in the run. Venky Jois also scored with 4:00 left on a feed from freshman Cody Benzel to give him sole possession of the career scoring record, with 1,743 points. Eastern trailed at halftime 35-32.
 
 
 
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, now has 1,754 points as an Eagle, breaking the school record of 1,741 set 39 years ago by Ron Cox (1974-77). The point total for Jois is currently 13th in Big Sky history, 56 from moving into the No. 12 position (1,810).
 
* Besides his scoring prowess, Jois' school-record total of 235 blocked shots are 12 from the league record of 247 (Brian Qvale, Montana, 2008-11). Jois also has 985 rebounds in his career to rank third in school history and sixth all-time in the Big Sky (26 from fifth).
 
* Eastern is now 43-29 all-time against ISU, and is 14-20 on the road and 28-8 at home (1-1 at neutral sites). The Eagles have won 11 of the last 13 meetings, with an eight-game winning streak snapped in the 2013-14 season when the Bengals prevailed 72-83 in Pocatello. Eastern won 65-57 at home in the 2014-15 season, extending EWU's home winning streak versus ISU to 13 games dating back to a 65-63 loss on March 1, 2003. Eastern also won later in the year in Pocatello by an 85-81 score.
 
 
 
More Comments from Head Coach Jim Hayford . . .
 
On Idaho State Loss: "I credit Idaho State. They came in with a great game plan and we knew we were going to have problems with Telfair. We had a game plan to stop him -- he didn't make any threes, but he drew a lot of fouls and made his free throws. It was a close game and we shot only 50 percent at the free throw line and had two more turnovers.  Venky was unstoppable too, but he had a tough night too from the free throw line. Those things made the difference in a four-point loss."
 
On Overcoming Mistakes: "In these games, everybody can look at something – coach or player. There are things that could have been done to make the difference. We have some 3-point shooters are better than they showed. And we had a higher turnover number than we should have in the backcourt. Venky is obviously a better free throw shooter than that. And those are the little differences in close games that give you a loss instead of a win."