The Eastern Washington University men's basketball team won the second half with its best-scoring half of the season, but a hot start by San Francisco spoiled a huge performance by Bogdan Bliznyuk as the Eagles fell to the Dons 81-71 at venerable War Memorial Gym Thursday (Dec. 7).
 
Eastern trailed by 26 in the first half, but rallied and out-scored the Dons 47-36 in the second half. Thanks to runs of 8-0 and 10-0 after intermission, the Eagles cut the lead to six on two occasions in the last 5:43 before the Dons held on for the win by making their last 10 free throws in the final minute.
 
"We have character and we found some guys who could bring us back," said Eastern head coach Shantay Legans. "You have to play with a certain edge and we took it to heart in the second half. But we have come out and be ready to go from the start."
 
San Francisco improved to 5-3 while the Eagles fell to 3-6. Eastern had defeated the Dons in each of the last three seasons, including road wins in 2014 and 2015.
 
Senior Bogdan Bliznyuk scored a season-high 31 points and had 10 rebounds to record his 16th career double-double. In the process, he moved up two spots into third on EWU's career scoring leaders list. He now has 1,572 career points, just 231 behind the school record of 1,803 set by his former teammate Venky Jois from 2013-16.
 
Sophomore Mason Peatling scored 11 points and junior Ty Gibson added 10 for the Eagles. True freshman Jack Perry, making the first start of his career, had six points and six rebounds.
 
"The good thing about this schedule and the preseason is that it's getting us ready for the Big Sky Conference schedule," added Legans. "We will find seven or eight guys who will play hard like that the whole time."
 
 
Records . . .
 
* The Eagles are now 3-6 on the season, with their last victory coming on Nov. 24 by an 83-62 score against Eastern Kentucky in the MGM Resorts Main Event in Las Vegas.
 
* Now 5-3, the Dons are in the midst of their busiest stretch of the season thus far, with four games in 10 nights. The Dons beat Central Arkansas 78-76 at home on Monday, and had also recently lost 79-72 at home to UC Santa Barbara on Nov. 28 and then 75-57 on the road at Arizona State on Dec. 2. Their victories also included a 69-56 home win over Sacramento State from the Big Sky Conference on Nov. 17.
 
 
What it Means . . .
 
* The Eagles are in the stretch run of playing10-straight games away from home. The Eagles are in the midst of playing four road games in a 10-day stretch, but earlier had a season-opening stretch that included seven games in a 15-day span. Thus far, the highlight of season has been EWU's 67-61 victory over Stanford on Nov. 14 in EWU's first win over a Pac-12 opponent since 2002. Eastern hasn't played at home since beating Walla Walla 82-61 on Nov. 10.
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* The Eagles head for Vermillion, S.D., to play the 8-3 Coyotes from the Summit League on Sunday (Dec. 12) at 11 a.m. Pacific time. It's the first of two games against a pair of teams currently a combined 14-6 on the season. Following the South Dakota game, the Eagles play at Wyoming on Dec.12, a team which is 6-3 thus far and ended EWU's season a year ago in the College Basketball Invitational. The Cowboys will face Pacific on Saturday (Dec. 9) prior to hosting EWU.
 
 
Keys to Game . . .
 
* San Francisco's hot start – actually blistering start – turned out to be too much for the Eagles to overcome. The Dons made their first six shots and 11 of their first 17 in the game to open leads of 11-0, 29-7 and 43-17. Eastern made its first 3-pointer with 1:33 left in the half, but by that time the Dons had eight. Before that shot, EWU had made only 5-of-21 shots overall and was 0-of-6 from the 3-point line, while USF was 14-of-32 and 8-of-16 from the arc.
 
 
Turning Point . . .
 
* Bogdan Bliznyuk scored nine of EWU's points in a 12-0 run that cut an 18-point deficit down to six with five minutes to play. The Eagles made five-straight shots in that run, but then missed four-straight shots and a pair of free throws to help USF maintain its lead. A 3-pointer by Ty Gibson cut the lead back to six with 1:12 left to play, but USF closed out the win by making 10-of-10 free throws in the final 57 seconds.
 
 
Top Performers . . .
 
* Senior Bogdan Bliznyuk made 11-of-22 shots from the field and 7-of-9 free throws to finish with 31 p oints, 10 rebounds and four assists. His previous high was 23 points in EWU's win at Stanford on Nov. 14, and it was the eighth time in his career he has scored at least 30 points. He had a school-record 45 against Portland State last year in a triple-overtime victory. However, the loss snapped a 10-game winning streak for EWU when he's had a double-double. It was the 16th in his career (record of 13-3).
* Sophomore Mason Peatling came off the bench to add 11 points and six rebounds, making 7-of-8 free throws and playing just 20 minutes.
* Junior Ty Gibson chipped in 10 points, making 3-of-7 3-point shots.
* True freshman Jack Perry had six points on a pair of key 3-pointers in the second half, and also had six rebounds and a pair of assists.
 
 
Key Stats . . .
 
* It was a tale of two halves, as USF sank 44 percent of its shots and made 7-of-9 (78 percent) of its 3-pointers in the first half, compared to 25 percent shooting by the Eagles on 1-of-7 (14 percent) from the arc. In the second half, Eastern held the Dons to 33 percent shooting and 1-of-5 (20 percent) treys. Eastern heated up to make 45 percent and 8-of-20 3-pointers for 40 percent. In the game, the Dons finished 39 percent from the field and 43 percent from the 3-point line, and EWU finished at 36 percent overall and 33 percent from long distance.
 
 
Other Team Highlights . . .
 
* In 112 career games (15th in school history), Bogdan Bliznyuk moved into third in school history in career scoring with a current total of 1,572 points – 169 from second and 231 from the school record. Against San Francisco he passed Irv Leifer (1,550 from 1942-47), who held the record for 30 years after playing for EWU from 1942-47. He then passed the 1,564 points of his former teammate Tyler Harvey (2013-15). Next on the list is Ron Cox (1,741 from 1974-77) and another former teammate, Venky Jois (school-record 1,803 points from 2013-16). Previously, Bliznyuk passed 10-year NBA veteran Rodney Stuckey (1,438 points from 2006-07) in EWU's first game of the season, and then Dave Hayden (1,461 points from 1970-73) against Washington. In addition, if Bliznyuk plays 16 more games he will equal the record of 128 set by his former teammate Felix Von Hofe from 2014-17.
 
* Eastern trailed by 23 in the second half when true freshman Jack Perry ignited an 8-0 run, and the Eagles eventually cut the lead to 57-44 with 11:07 left to play. Eastern's defense did its part in that stretch, holding USF to a 2-of-12 shooting stretch (4-of-17 in the half).
 
 
Notables . . .
 
* Eastern is 3-2 all-time against San Francisco, winning 96-90 a year ago in Cheney. The three prior meetings were in San Francisco, and Eastern lost 66-48 on Dec. 1, 1995, won 81-76 on Dec. 11, 2014, and won 81-77 on Dec. 1, 2015. All three games were played at War Memorial.
 
* The Eagles are in the midst of a stretch of 36-straight days without a home game – one of just four NCAA Division I teams with such a road stretch this year. Eastern's 15-day road trip from Nov. 11 to Nov. 25 is the books, but there are more travel miles ahead. Eastern plays four more road games before a pair of pre-Christmas home games. The first leg of EWU's road stretch included 4,432 airline miles, while the other trips in the road stretch will include 6,408 miles. That's a total of 10,840 air miles, not including ground travel.
 
 
Comments from Head Coach Shantay Legans . . .
 
On Getting Stops in Second Half: "If we can give that effort in the second half, we can give that effort it in the first half. In the second half we got some stops and our offense obviously looked better since we got some stops. We had one of our best shooting halves of the season with eight threes. We want to play that strong and play faster. Our team is good and is going to be solid."
 
On Bliznyuk and Other Contributions: "I promised Bogdan he wouldn't play 40 minutes but he did, and he had a double-double and did everything we asked. We have to find other guys too. Jack Perry in his first start played 35 minutes and had six rebounds – he is playing great basketball. Mason Peatling played great today – he didn't make a lot of shots but he made all his free throws. And he got on the offensive glass, same with Jesse Hunt."
 
On Start: "I was just disappointed by the way we came out. Some of our players weren't prepared it seemed like. You can't play the game with three guys ready and two guys not ready, and then follow a game plan. It's on my shoulders and we will figure that out. We'll get there, and the second half told a lot about the guys who played and the guys who played really hard."
 
On Playing on Road During Finals Week: "San Francisco had finals too, but they came out and played well. I know we have been on the road a lot, but being on the road is part of it. You have to be mentally tough. We are going play our first two Big Sky games on the road. Then we go to Reno to play three games for a chance to get to the NCAA Tournament. Our players are Division I athletes and have prepared for this all summer and the start of the school year. They have to come out ready to go."