The start to the start of league play couldn't have gone any better.
Despite an early 16-2 run and 21-8 lead in the first half, the Eastern Washington University men's basketball team couldn't sustain the fast start and opened Big Sky Conference play with an 84-72 loss to Weber State on Saturday (Dec. 29) at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash.
The Wildcats, picked to finish second behind pre-season league favorite Montana, used a 20-3 run to open the second half to pull away from EWU. Eastern opened the game making 10 of its first 17 shots, but suffered through a 4-of-25 (16 percent) stretch spanning halftime to fall behind by 21.
Junior
Mason Peatling scored a career-high 25 points to lead the Eagles on 9-of-17 shooting from the field in just his second game back. Underclassmen
Jacob Davison (13)
, Luka Vulikic (12) and.
Tyler Kidd (12) combined for another 37. The Eagles will continue league play at 1:05 p.m. on New Year's Eve (Dec. 31) versus Idaho State.
"Mason did a great job in his first full game back," said Eastern head coach
Shantay Legans. "You could see he was gassed and tired at times, but he was battling and did a great job down low. He's going to get other players open looks and open shots, but we have to make sure we're ready and smart when we get him rolling."
Eastern held Weber State to just one field goal in a 7:33 stretch in the first half for a collective total of 1-of-10 shooting. The Eagles made 6-of-10 in that stretch and led 21-8 with 10:07 to play. The Wildcats used a 12-0 run to cut into the lead, then led 37-33 at halftime.
The Eagles missed their first 10 shots of the second half and the Wildcats used a 12-0 run to take a 57-36 advantage with 13 minutes remaining. Weber State led by as many as 23 and no fewer than 12 the rest of the way.
"We were playing against one of the premier teams in the league, but at the same time I think we are one of the premier teams in the league too," added Legans. "That's what we hold our standard to."
Records . . .
* The Eagles are 2-10, and 0-1 in Big Sky Conference play. Eastern started league play in full health after
Mason Peatling made his season debut as a starter versus Corban in a 92-73 Eagle win on Dec. 21. That improved EWU's record to 2-9 for the season and snapped a six-game losing streak with the first five on the road.
* Weber State won its first road game of the year and is now 7-5 overall, having closed out its preseason schedule with an 83-69 home win over Delaware State on Dec. 22. The Wildcats are 4-1 at home and 1-2 on the road this season, plus are 2-2 on neutral courts.
What's Next . . .
* Eastern hosts Idaho State on Monday (Dec. 31) in a game that begins at 1:05 p.m. Eastern was picked to finish fourth in the league in both the coaches and media polls, while Weber State was picked second behind defending regular season and tournament champion Montana. Idaho State was eighth in both polls. A year ago, Weber State and EWU tied for third in the league with 13-5 records, but it was Eastern which advanced to the Big Sky Tournament championship game where it lost to the Grizzlies. Idaho State finished 9-9 in the league last season, as EWU picked up a key late-season road sweep over the Wildcats and Bengals in the lone meetings against those two schools in the 2017-18 season.
* Heading into tonight's game at Idaho, Idaho State is 4-5 overall. The Bengals fell to UC Santa Barbara 84-65 on Dec. 22. They are 2-1 at home and 2-4 on the road thus far, and are led by the 15.6 scoring average of junior guard Brandon Boyd.
Top Performers . . .
* In just his second game back,
Mason Peatling scored a career-high 25 points on 9-of-17 shooting from the field with a trio of 3-pointers made in four attempts. He also had six rebounds – five on the offensive end – and a pair of assists. He eclipsed his previous high of 19 versus South Dakota and Montana State in the 2017-18 season.
* Sophomore
Jacob Davison had 13 points with three assists, three blocked shots, a pair of steals and two rebounds. He made 7-of-8 free throws but was just 3-of-12 from the field and missed all three of his 3-point attempts.
* Junior
Tyler Kidd had a season-high 12 points, sinking 5-of-6 shots from the field and making both of his 3-point attempts. He also had a pair of assists and three rebounds in 17 minutes of playing time. His point total eclipsed his previous best of nine versus Corban in EWU's' last game and against Syracuse in EWU's season opener.
* Sophomore
Luka Vulikic scored all 12 of his points in the first half and finished 6-of-11 from the field.
* Senior
Jesse Hunt scored just seven points, but he also contributed 11 reeoubnds, three assists and a pair of steals.. Hunt entered the game with four double-doubles on the season and five in his career. He has now had 16 career double-figure scoring performances in his career to go along with eight performances with 10 or more rebounds.
Key Stats . . .
* Eastern started hot by making 10 of its first 17 shots for 58.8 percent, but made only 15-of-50 after that for 30 percent. Eastern finished at 38.8 percent for the game (26-of-67), making 6-of-13 3-point shots (33.3 percent). Weber State was the opposite, making just 4-of-14 (28.6 percent) to start the game and 27-of-44 (61.4 percent) to end it. The Wildcats finished at 53.4 percent in the game, the second-highest percentage against the Eagles this season.
* A trio of Wildcats combined for 56 of the team's 84 points. Cody John and Caleb Nero both finished with 19, and Jerrick Harding had 18. Nero sank 7-of-8 shots from the field and all four of his free throws.
Notables . . .
* EWU is now 2-3 at home at Reese Court, and is 48-9 overall there in the last four-plus seasons (84 percent). In the previous four seasons, EWU has gone 46-6 at Reese Court, including an 11-1 mark last season and 15-1 record in 2016-17.
Comments from Head Coach Shantay Legans . . .
On Weber State Loss: "You have to go out here and win some games – these are games we should win. We had a tough preseason and now we are in the Big Sky. If we can't defend our home court and do the things we are supposed to do when other teams come in here, it's going to be a long season. I don't want to have a long season. I want our team to get better and we have to do a better job as coaches to get them ready. We are going to do that."
On Weber State Transition Game: "You can't defend when they get transition baskets – we weren't getting back and it was lay-up after lay-up. We have to do a better job as coaches of getting our players to understand the game plan. We have to get players back in transition, if not, that really hurts your team. They didn't score much in the paint from their half-court sets, so we have to do a better job of getting our players prepared. Coach Randy Rahe did a great job of having his team ready on the road for their first Big Sky game. I give them all the credit."
On Kidd: "Tyler came in and provided a great spark off the bench. He played great and did a good job of changing the tempo of the game. We got him into some ball-screen action and he made some threes, and he got some other guys some wide-open threes. We have to knock those looks down."
On Idaho State: "They play similar to Weber State. They don't have the same dribble-drive players, but they shoot the three really well. They get out in transition and play really fast. It will be a good game to see where our transition defense is at. We have to be smart with our shot selection. And when we have mis-matches and advantages, we have to take those all day long. We'll get better at that."
