Timing is everything. Shooting too.
 
A season-best shooting night with six players scoring or rebounding in double figures lifted the Eastern Washington University men's basketball team past preseason Big Sky Conference favorite Montana 78-71 Thursday (Jan. 10) as EWU returned home to Reese Court in Cheney, Wash.
 
A 20-3 run on perfect 6-of-6 shooting from the field and 6-of-6 from the line spanning halftime helped the Eagles overcome an early 11-point deficit and take a 10-point. Eastern had a season-best shooting night by making 52.9 percent of its 3-pointers (9-of-17) and 48.0 percent overall.
 
"It's amazing when the ball goes in you win," said head coach Shantay Legans, whose team was coming off a 75-63 loss at Northern Colorado just three days earlier. "We did a good job and our assistant coaches did an amazing job of getting our guys prepared for the game. With such a short turnaround, they worked tirelessly. I'm just happy that our guys were accepting to the game plan and stuck with it the whole time."
 
Junior Mason Peatling paced the Eagles with 17 points in just 20 minutes of action because of foul trouble, with junior Tyler Kidd making his first start as an Eagle and finishing with 13 points, five assists and four rebounds. Sophomore Jacob Davison had 11 points and senior Jesse Hunt had a career-high 15 rebounds to go along with eight points.
 
Sophomore Jack Perry came off the bench to hit all four of his shots to finish with a season-high 12, and redshirt freshman Kim Aiken Jr. had a career-high 10, also off the bench. Eastern finished with a 26-9 advantage in points off the bench.
 
"That's what I envisioned last spring after last season," said Legans of the balanced scoring. "This is such a huge win for us, but we have to keep building on this. We can't have any letdowns. We have to make sure we stay focused."
 
Montana led for the first 15 1/2 minutes, and took a comfortable 28-17 advantage with 4:28 left in the half. But Eastern went on a monster 15-1 run to lead 32-29 at intermission. Five players scored in the run, including four by Peatling, three by Perry, four free throws by Kidd and a pair by Aiken, with Hunt closing the half with a bucket.
 
The Eagles then scored five of the first seven points in the second half – coming on a three-point play by Peatling and a fastbreak layin by Davison -- to complete the 20-3 run, The Grizzlies had just one field goal in a 6:22 span, going 1-of-6 from the field while EWU made all six of its shots from the field and all six of its free throws.
 
Eastern's lead ballooned to 10 on a 3-pointer by Aikin with 10:32 to play. Eastern then stayed steady by making 52 percent of its shots overall and 5-of-9 3-pointers in the second half, as well as 13-of-17 free throws for 76.5 percent.
 
Eastern improved to 4-12 overall and 2-3 in the Big Sky, while Montana slipped to 10-6 overall and 3-2 in the league with its second-straight loss. A year ago, Eastern beat the Grizzlies 74-65 in Cheney in the lone regular season meeting, but Montana beat EWU 82-65 in the Big Sky Conference Tournament championship game to earn a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
 
"We've been working so hard to win some games – and we think these are games we are supposed to win," said Legans. "We want to be in this position to play against the best teams in the league. Finally we showed that all the hard work does pay off. It's a great feeling."
 

Records . . .
 
* The Eagles are 4-12, and 2-3 in Big Sky Conference play. Eastern beat Idaho State 65-55 on Dec. 31 for its other league win thus far. Eastern has lost its last two games, including a roller-coaster of a ride at Idaho on Jan. 3 when the Eagles lost 74-71 despite scoring runs of 16-9, 11-2 and 15-4. Eastern had a 14-2 run in the second half against Northern Colorado in a 75-63 loss on Jan. 7, but a 19-point halftime deficit and 24-point hole in the second half was too much to overcome. The UNC loss dropped Eastern to 0-of-9 on the road this season.
 
* Montana fell to 3-2 in the Big Sky and 10-6 overall, and was picked to win the Big Sky title it won a year ago with a come-from-behind 82-65 win over the Eagles in the championship game of the league tournament.  Montana featured an offense with four players averaging in double figures in scoring while leading the league in field goal percentage (48.7 percent) and field goal percentage defense (41.9). The Grizzlies had their 20-game home winning streak snapped when they lost to Portland State in overtime 77-74. That followed league wins over Northern Arizona (86-73), Southern Utah (87-76) and Sacramento State (87-56).
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* After a week-long break, Eastern returns to action against Montana State (3-1, 6-8) on Jan. 19 at 2:05 p.m. at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash. That game will be televised live regionally by SWX. Montana State is now 4-1 in the league and 7-8 overall. The Bobcats, who feature senior high-scoring guard Tyler Hall, beat Idaho 77-67 on Thursday (Jan. 10) and host Northern Colorado on Jan. 14 prior to playing the Eagles.
 

Top Performers . . .
 
* Hitting his shooting stride in the last two games, junior Mason Peatling sank 6-of-8 shots from the field and 5-of-6 free throws in just 20 minutes because of foul trouble to finish with a team-high 17 points. He also had three steals, and one game earlier versus Northern Colorado finished 19 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field, plus had nine rebounds, two assists, two steals and two assists. He now has 19 career games scoring in double figures, with six rebounding in double figures and five double-doubles.
* Senior Jesse Hunt had 15 rebounds to eclipse his previous career high of 12 set earlier this season versus UMKC and South Dakota State. He also had eight points and three assists, and came two points from a double-double. He has four double-doubles on the season and five in his career.  He has now had 19 career double-figure scoring performances in his career to go along with nine performances with 10 or more rebounds.
* Junior guard Tyler Kidd made his first start of his EWU career after coming off the bench in the first 12 games he played this season. He sank all six of his free throws and 3-of-7 from the field to finish with 13 points, four rebounds and five assists. He was just short of his previous season high of 14 points against Corban on Dec. 21, but it was his high against a NCAA Division I opponent. He has now scored in double figures four times, all coming in EWU's last six games.
* With Peatling in foul trouble, Kim Aiken Jr. came off the bench to play 17 minutes (equaling his second-most this season) and scored 11 points. He made 3-of-4 shots from the 3-point stripe and 3-of-4 free throws. His previous high this season for scoring was six at Washington on Nov. 27.
* Jack Perry hadn't attempted a shot in the two conference games he played, but he came off the bench to hit all four of his 3-point attempts to finish with 12 points. It was his third double-figure scoring performance of the season, just two away from the 14 he scored versus South Dakota State on Dec. 18.
* Jacob Davison finished with 11 points for the Eagles, hitting 4-of-9 from the field and 3-of-4 from the free throw line.


Key Stats . . .

* Entering the game, Eastern's best shooting nights of the season came against Corban (47.1 percent) and Idaho State (46.4 percent), and 40.6 percent from the 3-point line against Corban (13-of-32) and 37.5 percent (9-of-24) versus UMKC. But the Eagles exceeded those marks with 48.2 percent shooting overall against Montana, and 52.9 percent from the arc (9-of-17). Montana was slightly better from the field at 48.2 percent and had a 42-28 advantage in points inside the paint. But the Grizzlies were just 4-of-19 from the 3-point line for 21.1 percent, which was the second-best defensive performance of the season for EWU. Syracuse made only 3-of-17 (17.6 percent) in EWU's season-opener.
 
  
Notables . . .

* Eastern improved to 4-3 at Reese Court this season with the win over Montana. The Eagles are 50-9 overall there in the last four-plus seasons (85 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.
 
* Eastern is 23-51 against the Grizzlies since becoming a member of NCAA Division I in 1983-84, including a 10-27 record in Missoula, 13-21 in Cheney and 0-3 on neutral courts. Montana leads the overall series 68-44. The Eagles triumphed the last time they played the Griz in Cheney, and have won three of the last four meetings in Missoula. Until winning 75-69 on Feb. 4, 2015, the Eagles had lost their last 12 meetings in Missoula, dating back to a 71-52 Eagle win on Feb. 7, 2004. The Eagles would also beat the Grizzlies on their home floor in the 2015 Big Sky Conference Championship game, giving the Eagles a berth in the NCAA Tournament. Including EWU's three-game sweep there to capture the 2015 Big Sky Conference Tournament title, EWU has won five of its last six games at Dahlberg Arena in Missoula (including three of four versus UM). However, Eastern has lost 23 of the last 31 meetings against the Griz. EWU is 1-5 versus the Griz in the Big Sky Tournament. Besides losing 82-65 in the 2018 title game and beating UM in 2015, EWU also lost 74-66 in the 2012 semifinals in Missoula; 73-71 in overtime in the 2006 semifinals in Flagstaff, Ariz.; 58-48 in the 2005 quarterfinals and 70-66 in the 2002 championship in Bozeman.
 
* Eastern has now won nine of the last 12 meetings against MSU, including an 84-79 Eagle victory at home in 2018. Prior to that, EWU lost to the Bobcats 91-90 in overtime on Jan. 28, 2017, in Bozeman. Eastern has won 19 of the last 31, and is 11-3 at home in that span. Eastern, in fact, has not lost to the Bobcats at Reese Court since a 60-56 Bobcat win on Feb. 24, 2011. The Eagles are 40-45 all-time against MSU, including a 32-36 record as a member of NCAA Division I (22-12 in Cheney, 10-24 in Bozeman). The records include two MSU forfeits in the 1993-94 season.
 
 
Comments from Head Coach Shantay Legans . . .

On Win: "It's nice to come away with a win at home in front of such a great crowd. We heard all the cheers for the football team and our guys got pumped up from that. It's an awesome feeling to see the joy on the bench and in the locker room after the game. They are proud and they can stick their chest out."
 
On Defense: "That was one of our better defensive games of the year. I know they shot 48 percent from the field, but when they attempted threes our guys were contesting every single shot. We need to be able to do that and play as hard as possible."
 
On Kim Aiken: "He's been amazing. He started the first two games of his career against big-time teams and probably lost a little bit of confidence and got down on himself like freshmen do. He got put on the scout team but kicked butt every single day. We needed Kim tonight and knew he would fight and rebound. The energy he brought was amazing tonight, and he shot the ball well. He puts in so much work, and once everybody leaves the gym he'll come out and shoot like he always does. I tell you, he's going to be the president of the university before he leaves here. He's an unbelievable young man and we're lucky he wanted to come to Eastern – he has great character."
 
On Jack Perry and Tyler Kidd: "We've been begging Jack to shoot, and he shot today. He hadn't taken shot in league play until today. We've been talking about how we can play faster and we decided to give Tyler Kidd a shot – he's been playing great. We gave him some minutes that really mean something and he came out and performed tonight. He had five turnovers, and four of them came in the first four minutes. But he came back and played great the rest of the game."