It was raining points again for the reigning Big Sky Conference co-Player of the Week.
 
Senior graduate transfer Jacob Wiley had his second-straight 30-point performance, pouring in 30 points to lead the Eastern Washington University men's basketball team past Northern Arizona 84-62 Thursday (Jan. 19) at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash. The victory, coupled with two other results in the league Thursday night, helped EWU creep within a half-game of the league lead.
 
Wiley made 14-of-16 shots from the field and both of his free throws, and also had eight rebounds, four blocked shots and a steal. He scored 36 in his last outing in a narrow three-point loss to Weber State last Saturday (Jan. 14), and is now shooting at an 81 percent clip from the field and 93 percent from the line in his last three outings.
 
"Jake has made huge strides ever since that first road trip we took back in November," said Eastern head coach Jim Hayford of the transfer by way of Lewis-Clark State and Montana. "He understands how we want to use him and the interchangeability of his position. He's gotten very comfortable with what we do offensively. You take a player with really high character and tremendous work ethic, and now you give him understanding, and he's put some dominating performances together. It's really fun to watch him."
 
Thanks to Wiley's dominating performance, Eastern out-shot the Lumberjacks 54 percent to 40 percent for the game, and had a season-high 58 points in the paint. In holding NAU to 62 points, the Eagles have had their top four defensive performances of the season against NCAA Division I opposition all come during their six league games. The Lumberjacks had only 16 points in the paint, a season low for an EWU opponent this season.
 
Eastern, which hosts Southern Utah Saturday at 1:05 p.m. at Reese Court, won its fourth-straight game overall against NAU and its sixth-straight at Reese Court versus the Lumberjacks. True freshman Mason Peatling added 10 points and five rebounds on 5-of-8 shooting from the field for EWU.
 
"That was a good win and the way to defend the home court," added Hayford, whose team out-scored NAU 41-31 in the second half. "We can still shoot the ball a whole lot better than we did tonight. We said at halftime it wasn't going in, so let's beat them where we can. When teams double on Jake, we know what we want to do with movement out of that. And he still gets 30 points, but we still moved the ball out of the double team really well."
 
 
Won-Lost Records . . .  
 
* The Eagles are now 12-7 in their 34th season as a member of NCAA Division I and 4-2 in the league as they continue their 30th season as a member of the Big Sky.  Eastern entered the game with a league-best RPI of 155, and is now 9-1 at home and 3-6 on the road.
* The Lumberjacks are 4-15 overall and 1-5 in the league, and are now 1-5 at home and 1-7 on the road this season. They are also 2-3 on neutral courts. A year ago, during an injury-plagued season, the Lumberjacks were 5-25, losing two regular season games and one tournament game to EWU.
 
 
 
What It Means . . .
 
* The Eagles didn't improve any places in the Big Sky Conference race, and remain in a fourth-place tie with Portland State with 4-2 record. However, the Eagles gained ground on league-leader Weber State, which lost its first conference game of the season 83-77 at North Dakota. Eastern also gained ground on second-place Montana, which fell 88-79 at Portland State. When the dust cleared Thursday, Weber State remains on top with a 4-1 record (.800 winning percentage), with Montana and North Dakota both at 5-2 (.714 winning percentage), and EWU and PSU within a half-game of the top spot in the league standings. The top five teams secure first-round byes in the Big Sky Conference Tournament March 7-11 to Reno, Nevada. There are still 12 games left to play for the Eagles in the league season as the NAU game marked the one-third point in the season for the Eagles.
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* Eastern closes out its weekend homestand by hosting Southern Utah on Saturday (Jan. 21) at 1:05 p.m. Pacific time. Southern Utah fell to Idaho 79-67 on Thursday in Moscow to drop to 4-15 overall and 2-4 in the league. The Thunderbirds opened the league season with road victories at Northern Arizona (93-80) and Northern Colorado (78-76), a road loss at North Dakota (95-65) and then home losses to Sacramento State (88-83) and Portland State (88-77). Prior to the start of league play, SUU's lone victories were against Bethesda and Life Pacific. The Thunderbirds feature one of the most productive players in the league in guard Randy Onwuasor, who entered Thursday's action averaging 23.1 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.2 steals per game.
 
 
Keys to Game . . .
 
* Eastern made only 3-of-17 3-point shots in the first half for 18 percent, but Wiley's 6-of-7 shooting helped EWU take a six-point lead at intermission. In the second half, Wiley dominated with an 8-of-9 performance inside, while EWU took only four 3-point shots, making two. In his last three games alone, Wiley has missed only 10 of 62 shots total, making 39-of-48 from the field (81 percent) and 13-of-14 from the line. (93 percent)
 
 
Top Performers . . .
 
* Senior graduate transfer Jacob Wiley had his third-straight game with at least 27 points, and his fourth in his last five outings with at least 23. For the season, he has scored at least 20 seven times and in double figures in all but two of EWU's 19 games. He finished with 30 points on 14-of-16 shooting from the field and 2-of-2 from the line, and also had game highs with eight rebounds and four blocked shots, and chipped in four assists and a steal. He entered the game ranked 10th in NCAA Division I in blocked shots (2.89), 14th nationally in field goal percentage (.621) and 62nd in free throw percentage (.854).
* True freshman Mason Peatling had his third double figure scoring performances of the season, finishing with 10 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals while making 5-of-8 shots from the field.
* Junior Bogdan Bliznyuk scored seven points and had a game-high five assists He entered the game ranked 63rd nationally in scoring (19.1) and 46th in free throw percentage (.867).
* Senior Felix Von Hofe scored five points, making 1-of-7 3-point attempts. He entered the game ranked 21st in NCAA Division I with an average of 3.17 3-pointers per game. He remains 14th in career 3-pointers in the Big Sky with a current total of 224, which is 36 from the school record of 260 set by his former Eastern teammate Tyler Harvey from 2013-15.
* Sophomore Jesse Hunt added six points, three rebounds and a pair of blocked shots.
* True freshman Luka Vulikic made all four of his shots and chipped in nine points.
* Sophomore Cody Benzel contributed six points in the first half.
 
 
Turning Point . . .
 
* Eastern led for less time in the first half than NAU (7:42 to 8:25), so a 37-31 halftime lead was far from comfortable for the Eagles. But EWU came out on fire in the second half and used a 13-2 run to open a 50-35 lead with 16:17 remaining. Five Eagles scored in the run, including a pair of baskets by both Luka Vulikic and Jacob Wiley.
 
 
Key Stats . . .
 
* After NAU made six of its first nine shots and scored 19 points in the opening 12 minutes, the points came at a drizzle after that. The Eagles held NAU to 39.6 percent shooting from the field, including 15 of its last 44 (34 percent). After its first five league games, Eastern had the Big Sky's best defensive shooting percentage overall (.416) and the best from the 3-point stripe (.318). The Eagles entered the game second in the Big Sky in scoring defense, allowing an average of just 69.2 points per game (Montana led at 66.7).
 
 
Team Highlights . . .
 
* After the Lumberjacks took made six of their first nine shots and took an early 19-12 lead, Eastern followed with a 13-1 run to take a 25-20 advantage. Aided by a steal and fastbreak layin by Cody Benzel for a three-point play, Eastern took a 37-31 lead into the locker room. In the final 11:59 of the first half, NAU made only five of their last 20 shots for 20 percent, including a stretch of 5:28 without a field goal.
 
 
Notables . . .
 
* Despite winning for the fourth-straight time, Eastern trails in the all-time series 31-36 (9-22 in Flagstaff, 20-12 in Cheney, 2-2 neutral). The only meeting before Eastern became a member of NCAA Division I was an 84-80 NAU victory on Dec. 20, 1969, in Fresno, Calif. A year ago, Eastern won three games versus NAU, including a 74-52 in the first round of the Big Sky Conference Tournament. Eastern has now won the last six meetings in Cheney dating back to a 73-69 loss on Jan. 15, 2010.
* The Eagles have had their top four defensive performances of the season against NCAA Division I opposition all come during league play, holding Idaho to 62 points, Montana State to 64 and Northern Arizona to 62 in victories, plus limited Montana to 65 in an EWU loss. Eastern held Idaho to 31 percent shooting from the field for EWU's top defensive performance of the season, and that game included a stretch of nine-straight misses for UI and two others of six-straight. In the next game versus MSU, the Bobcats had 11-straight misses at one point and had stretches of 11:23 and 3:58 without a field goal. Montana scored just 65 points in an Eagle loss, and went the first 5:13 without a point. In Eastern's next game, the Eagles held Idaho State scoreless for the first 4:09 of the game, in addition to another scoreless stretch of 5:02 and a game-deciding 4:42 period without a field goal. Eastern had stretches of 5:28 in the first half and 6:34 in the second half without a field goal.
 
* The Eagles remain the top team in the Big Sky Conference, entering Thursday with an RPI of 155 (EWU was a season high 57th on 12/13 in the official NCAA RPI ratings). The next-best Big Sky teams are Weber State (#162), Montana (#171), Portland State (#230) and North Dakota (235). Southern Utah is No. 337 and Northern Arizona is No. 342 out of 351 NCAA Division I schools. With an 8-5 mark entering Big Sky play, Eastern joined Portland State at 7-4 as the only other league team above the .500 mark prior to the start of the league season. Plus, the Eagles received 10 votes in the Collegeinsider.com Mid-Major top 25 on Dec. 12 when the Eagles were 7-2.
 
 
More Comments from Head Coach Jim Hayford . . .
 
On Second Half Versus NAU: "Offensively we got a little better with 62 percent in the second half. Then we amped up our defensive pressure and forced more turnovers and beat them on the boards. Instead of winning by six, we won the second half by 16. And that's how you go home with a 20-point home win. It's nice. We needed a game that was a little less tension-filled. We've played some tough ones lately. We'll enjoy this and then move on to Saturday and Southern Utah, who has an amazing player."
 
On Rebounding from Losses Last Two Saturdays: "We came to work on both Mondays with a bad taste in our mouths. What I love about this team is they want to work hard so they don't lose like that again. Our team is all about doing what they need to do to get better. It's been a really enjoyable year as a coach – this is year 19 and it's definitely one of the most enjoyable years I've had."
 
On Battle Saturday Between Two of Big Sky's Top Players: "They are two very different players. There are some great players in this league – Tyler Hall at Montana State, Jeremy Senglin at Weber State and Victor Sanders at Idaho. But Randy Onwauasor fits right in with them. He can hit the 3-pointer, but with his drive game he can get to the line. It's kind of like just another night in the Big Sky, because there is another great guard coming at you. He's had some super-human games. We need to use the quick turnaround to really be prepared for him."