The Eagles were lighting up the Reese Court scoreboard early, but preseason Big Sky Conference favorite Idaho was able to dim the glow.
Despite a 20-6 start and a defensive effort that equaled its season best, the Eastern Washington University men's basketball team fell 58-51 to the Vandals on Friday (Jan. 12) at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash.
The Eagles held Idaho to 58 points, equaling the fewest EWU has allowed to an opponent this season. Idaho sank just 40.8 percent of its shots, including only 2-of-9 3-pointers in the second half (22.2 percent). But defense wasn't EWU's problem as it lost for the first time in six games at home this season while having its Reese Court winning streak snapped at 12.
After sinking eight of its first 13 shots from the field to jump out to the early 14-point lead, Eastern finished at just 36.4 percent from the field for its lowest percentage since Dec. 7. Eastern's 51 points were its fewest since scoring 50 in a loss to Georgia State in November, and Eastern hadn't scored fewer than 65 in the 12 games since – and no fewer than 77 in the last seven.
"Our guys came out and played with great emotion and great fire, and I thought they did that throughout the game," said Eastern head coach
Shantay Legans. "But as you don't score and the game stops going the way you want it to go, your effort level doesn't dip but your confidence does a little bit. We didn't play with that same confidence and same swagger as we did at the start and how we have been playing. We have to do a better job next time sustaining that energy we played with early. You can't say we didn't come out and play defense, because I thought we did a good job there."
Most notably, Idaho held Eastern senior
Bogdan Bliznyuk scoreless for 32:12 of the game after he scored nine early points. He finished as the only Eagle in double figures with 14, and now has 1,756 career points, 47 away from the all-time record.
The two teams will play again in Moscow on Feb. 9. Eastern's next game is at Northern Arizona next Thursday (Jan. 18) at 5:30 p.m. Pacific time, followed by a game at Southern Utah on Saturday, Feb. 20, at 11:30 a.m. Pacific time.
Records . . .
* The Eagles are now 8-10 on the season and 3-2 in the Big Sky, after having won five of their previous six games. Eastern had opened its three-game homestand on Jan. 4, taking a 13-point second-half lead against Portland State and holding on for an 81-74 win. The Eagles then romped past Sacramento State 82-67 two days later, leading by as many as 21 in the second half versus the Hornets.
* Suffering its first loss at home to drop to 5-1 on the year, the Eagles are 51-10 (84 percent) at Reese Court in the past five seasons since 2013-14. However, the Eagles saw their 12-game home court winning streak snapped, having not lost at home since falling to Montana on Jan. 7, 2017.
* The Vandals are 11-6 overall and 3-2 in the league after falling 73-72 to Portland State last Saturday on a last-second offensive rebound basket by the Vikings. The Vandals edged Sac State 69-68 one game earlier.
What it Means . . .
* Eastern missed out in an early-season opportunity to move into a second-place tie with Montana State (4-1) in the Big Sky standings, just behind league-leader Montana (5-0). Weber State and Idaho State are both 3-1, EWU and Idaho are 3-2, Portland State is 2-2 and Northern Colorado is 2-3. The Grizzlies have three road conference wins already and Idaho has two, while EWU, MSU, Weber State, Idaho State and Portland State all have one all-important road breakthrough.
What's Next . . .
* Eastern heads back on the road for a pair of games, taking on Northern Arizona on Thursday (Jan. 18) at 5:30 p.m. Pacific time, followed by a game at Southern Utah on Saturday, Feb. 20, at 11:30 a.m. Pacific time. Both teams are 0-4 in the league heading into their match-up on Saturday (Jan. 13) in Cedar City, Utah. Northern Arizona is 3-14 overall this season (1-4 at home), while SUU, which hosts Idaho prior to playing the Eagles, is 6-9 (5-2 at home).
Keys to Game . . .
* The Eagles got off to a hot start, opening leads of 10-1 and 20-6, but they couldn't sustain it. The Eagles made eight of their first 13 shots, but then just 12-of-42 after that for 29 percent. Eastern senior
Bogdan Bliznyuk scored nine of EWU's first 20 points on 4-of-6 shooting in the first 6:16 of the game, but was held scoreless for the next 32:12 before netting five late points. He finished at 5-of-14 for the game with a stretch of seven-straight misses from the field.
Turning Point . . .
* Eastern led 34-33 with 15:27 left in the game on a 3-pointer by
Ty Gibson, but the Vandals followed with a 10-2 run over the next three minutes to take a 43-36 advantage. A 7-0 Vandal run and a five-minute scoreless stretch for the Eagles helped Idaho open an 11-point bulge at the 2:21 mark, and EWU could get no closer than seven the rest of the way.
Top Performers . . .
* Senior
Bogdan Bliznyuk had a team-high 14 points, and also contributed six rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals.
* Sophomore
Mason Peatling chipped in eight points, six rebounds, two steals and two blocked shots.
* True freshman
Jack Perry also scored eight with two assists and three rebounds.
* Juniors
Ty Gibson and
Cody Benzel each scored six points, but combined to go jut 4-of-14 from the field overall, including 4-of-13 from the 3-point stripe. Gibson also had five rebounds and four assists.
Key Stats . . .
* While the Eagles held Idaho to 40.8 percent, Eastern's offense couldn't keep up the torrid shooting pace it's had lately. Eastern had its worst-shooting game in its last nine outings, dating back to a 35.6 percent performance at San Francisco on Dec. 7. Eastern had made at least 50 percent of its shots in four of the last six games, winning in each of those four contests. Eastern has had its top eight shooting performances of the year in the last eight games, having improved it season percentage from 39 percent to 45 percent entering the UI game. The Eagles had a double-figure advantage in field goal shooting in each of their last three outings, and are now 8-0 when they out-shoot their opponents and 0-10 when they don't.
Other Team Highlights . . .
* Big Sky Conference Player of the Year candidate
Bogdan Bliznyuk now has 1,756 career points in 121 career games, second on the school's scoring list and now just 47 behind the record of 1,803 set by Venky Jois (2013-16). Bliznyuk currently ranks 16th in the 55-year history of the Big Sky, only 31 points behind North Dakota's Quinton Hooker with 1,787 in four seasons from 2014-17. Jois is No. 14 on the Big Sky list. Bliznyuk is eight field goal attempts from that EWU record as well. In addition, Bliznyuk needs to play in seven more games to equal the record of 128 set by his former teammate
Felix Von Hofe from 2014-17.
Notables . . .
* Five different Eagles scored, with four hitting a 3-pointer during EWU's early 20-6 run.
Bogdan Bliznyuk scored nine of those 20 points, scoring as many points (5) in the first 1:39 of the game as he did in his previous game versus Sacramento State. He had five shots against the Hornets, but matched that in the opening six minutes versus UI, which didn't make its first field goal until the 15:25 mark. The Vandals, however, took advantage of a pair of 0-of-5 shooting stretches by the Eagles, and knotted the score at 25 late in the half. Eastern led at intermission 27-25.
* Since 1996 when Idaho first left the Big Sky Conference, the two schools have now played 23 times, with Eastern winning 14 of them. Idaho leads the all-time series 55-29. Since EWU became a NCAA Division I member in the 1983-84 season, EWU is 17-34 against Idaho (9-15 home, 7-15 away, 1-4 neutral).
Comments from Head Coach Shantay Legans . . .
On EWU Defense: "We went over a lot of stuff and they run a ton of stuff on offense, so I give our guys credit for doing a good job defensively. We held them to 40 percent and to 22 percent in the second half from three – that's really good, especially against a team shooting 41 percent from three. That was a good job by us there."
On Loss: "Idaho came in here and kicked our butt. They out-coached us. I thought our guys played hard. Idaho did a good job of slowing our offense down by going to a zone and a 1-2-2. We knew it was coming but I didn't have our guys all the way prepared. We missed some easy ones because we shot it a little quick."
On Vandals: "They came in and had a good game plan – Coach Verlin did a good job with his team. They put us on our heels a little bit in the second half, and that kind of threw our timing off a little bit. We rushed some of our shots – we usually make those threes. We have to go back to the drawing board. Our guys played hard and to hold them to 58 points was a positive for us. But 51 points isn't very good – it was a very bad game for us tonight."
On Vandal Defense: "I give them all the credit. They came in with a great game plan and they stuck to it. They made us switch it up during the middle of the game. Their zone and their 1-2-2 press gave us a little bit of a problem. We have to be a little bit more aggressive and I have to do a better job getting guys prepared for that."
