The Eastern Washington University men's basketball team had a trio of impressive stretches, but the Eagles couldn't come all the way back from a 22-point deficit and fell 74-71 to Idaho Thursday (Jan. 3) in a Big Sky Conference game at the Cowan Spectrum in Moscow, Idaho.
 
Eastern had a run of 16-9 to start the game and 11-2 to start the second half, then had its most impressive run in the final four minutes. The Eagles fell behind 70-56 with 4:48 to play, but a 15-4 run pulled EWU within 74-71 with 47 seconds remaining. Eastern had a chance to tie, but Mason Peatling missed a 3-pointer with five seconds left and then EWU couldn't get another shot off after collecting an offensive board.
 
Peatling led four Eagles in double figures with 17 points, with Jesse Hunt adding 14, Ty Gibson 11 and Cody Benzel 10. However, Idaho out-shot the Eagles 50.0 percent to 40.7 percent, plus out-rebounded EWU 35-29. In the last 11 meetings between the two schools, the average winning margin has been just 5.9 points.
 
The battle between 3-10 teams was highlighted by scoring runs by both squads, including an early 16-9 start by the Eagles. But Idaho had a run of 34-7 to end the half and open a 20-point halftime lead it never relinquished. The Vandals led by as many as 22 before EWU rallied with an 11-2 run to pull within 11 with 16:07 left.
 
Idaho quickly regained a 16-point lead and held a double-digit advantage for the next 10 minutes. In EWU's final 15-4 rally, Gibson, Hunt and Tyler Kidd each hit key 3-point baskets, as well as two-point buckets by Kidd, Luka Vulikic and Jacob Davison.
 

Records . . .
 
* The Eagles are 3-11, and 1-2 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 victory had snapped a six-game losing streak with the first five on the road.
 
* The Vandals improved to 4-10 overall and 1-2 in the Big Sky, having lost at home 93-87 to Weber State on Monday (Dec. 31). The Vandals also lost at home to Idaho State by a 72-55 score, two days before Eastern beat the Bengals 65-55 in Cheney.

* Idaho was the regular season runner-up last year at 14-4 and finished 22-9 for the season, but was picked to finish sixth this season by the media and ninth by the coaches in the preseason Big Sky Conference polls. Eastern was selected fourth in both rankings after coming off its own 20-win season a year ago (20-15) and advancing to the Big Sky Tournament championship game.
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* Waiting in the wings is Northern Colorado, which hosts Idaho on Saturday (Jan. 5) and then Eastern on Monday (Jan. 7). The Bears are 8-5 overall and 2-0 in the league after opening with road wins at Sacramento State (70-65) and Portland State (73-60). Senior 6-2 guard Jordan Davis is the Big Sky's leading scorer at 24.5 points per game, and is also averaging 5.5 rebounds and 4.6 assists. Three other players average in double figures – 6-6 freshman guard Bodie Hume (11.8), 6-1 guard Trent Harris (11.2) and 6-3 guard Jonah Radebaugh (11.1). Radebaugh also averages 6.1 rebounds and 2.0 assists for a Bears team leading the league with a plus-9.9 scoring margin per game.
 

Top Performers . . .
 
* Junior Mason Peatling led Eastern with 17 points, plus had six rebounds and four assists.
* Senior Jesse Hunt had 14 points, six rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots. Hunt entered the game with four double-doubles on the season and five in his career.  He has now had 18 career double-figure scoring performances in his career to go along with eight performances with 10 or more rebounds.
* Senior Ty Gibson had his second-straight double-figure scoring performance, finishing with 11 points on 3-of-7 shooting from the 3-point stripe. He also scored 11 points on 3-of-3 shooting from the 3-point stripe and making both of his free throws one game earlier in a victory over Idaho State. Prior to that, he was mired in a 1-of-14 slump shooting 3-pointers, and had scored just seven points in his previous seven games.
* Senior Cody Benzel had 10 points on 3-of-6 shooting from the 3-point line.
 

Key Stats . . .

Idaho sank 58 percent of its shots in the second half, leading to a 52.6 percent night for the Vandals. Idaho also sank 10-of-19 3-pointers compared to 10-of-31 for the Eagles. Eastern shot at a 40.7 percent clip for the night. Trevon Allen paced Idaho with 25 points, hitting 3-of-4 3-point shots.
 
  
Notables . . .

* In the 11 meetings since Idaho re-joined the Big Sky Conference in the 2014-15 season, EWU is 6-5 but the average winning margin for the winning team is just 5.9 points (total of 65). Included was a Vandal sweep in 2017-18 and an EWU sweep in 2016-17. Last season EWU fell 66-64 in Moscow after losing 58-51 earlier in the year at home. The year before, EWU won 69-62 in Moscow and 77-67 in Cheney. But Eastern lost the previous two meetings, 77-73 in the quarterfinals of the 2016 Big Sky Conference Championships in Reno, Nevada, and a 66-62 setback in Moscow on Feb. 27, 2016. Until losing at home 58-51 earlier in the 2017-18 season, the Eagles had won their last three games at Reese Court versus the Vandals, and hadn't lost there since an 81-79 overtime loss on Dec. 6, 2012, in the last non-conference meeting before the Vandals rejoined the Big Sky.
 
* Since 1996 when Idaho first left the Big Sky Conference, the two schools have now played 25 times, with Eastern winning 14 of them. Idaho leads the all-time series 57-29. Since EWU became a NCAA Division I member in the 1983-84 season, EWU is 17-36 against Idaho (9-15 home, 7-17 away, 1-4 neutral).
 
* The Eagles are 11-11 all-time versus UNC (8-3 in Cheney, 3-8 in Greeley), with the first meeting taking place on Dec. 20, 1971, when Eastern beat the Bears 76-68 in Greeley, Colo. Since then, all of the meetings have been with EWU as a member of NCAA Division I (since 1983-84), starting in the 2006-07 season when the Bears became a Big Sky Conference member. Eastern has won three of the last four meetings and six of the last eight. The Eagles won in Cheney 67-65 on Jan. 27, 2018, less than a month after losing in Greeley 88-75. The teams met just once in the 2016-17 season and EWU won that 70-44 in Greeley.