A 9-0 run early in the second half helped open a double-digit lead they wouldn't relinquish, and the Eastern Washington University men's basketball team beat Idaho 82-57 Monday (Feb. 18) 82-57 in a President's Day game at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash.
 
Eastern shot at a 62 percent clip in the second half to turn a seven-point advantage into a 29-point bulge in the second half. The Eagles had just seven 3-pointers, but sank 26-of-38 shots inside the stripe for 68 percent to lead in points in the paint 50-24. Eastern had a dominating 39-25 rebounding advantage – a season-best margin of 14 -- and led 15-4 in second-chance points, 19-6 in points off turnovers and 29-9 in bench points.
 
"They didn't have an answer for us inside because of their lack of depth and some injured players," said Eastern head coach Shantay Legans. "To be able to go at them like we did was great. I had a fun time coaching our players tonight. It's always good to beat Idaho because they are a rival right down the street."
 
Four Eagles scored in double figures for EWU, led by the double-double of 16 points and 13 rebounds by Mason Peatling. Others in double figures were Kim Aiken Jr. (17), Jesse Hunt (12) and Tanner Groves (career-high 14). Hunt also had six rebounds and six assists as EWU finished with a season high 24 assists as a team. In having a 48-30 advantage after intermission, Eastern's 48 points in the second half tied for the highest this season, also in the second half versus Idaho on Jan. 3.
 
Eastern has now won seven of its last 10 games in league play, and is 9-6 since starting the season 1-9. Eastern is just 1-12 on opponent home courts, but is now 9-3 at Reese Court where the Eagles have a seven-game winning streak.
 
Eastern suffered through a 3-of-15 shooting half from the 3-point line, but made 12-of-18 shots from 2-point range to help Eastern to a 34-27 halftime lead. The Eagles dominated on the boards 23-11, and Peatling had a double-double just 16:09 into the game. He finished the half with 11 points and 11 boards.
 
Eastern held a seven-point lead in the second half when Hunt scored six points and Aiken added a 3-pointer to lead EWU during the 9-0 run and give the Eagles a 50-34 lead. Eastern held the Vandals without a field goal for three minutes, and EWU eventually built its lead to 29 with 1:06 remaining.
 
"Today it shined through that we had a little more depth than they did," added Legans, despite the fact EWU played without injured starter Jacob Davison and injured backup Luka Vulikic.
 
 
Records . . .
 
* The Eagles are now 10-15 overall, and 7-6 in Big Sky Conference play, and remain in fifth place in the league standings. The Eagles are 9-3 at home this season and 1-12 on the road, with the lone victory away from home coming at Sacramento State 94-92 in overtime on Jan. 26.
 
* The Eagles are still sitting in fifth place in the Big Sky Conference standings after a weekend sweep, which included an 88-78 overtime victory for EWU over second-place Northern Colorado. Montana is in sole possession of first in the league standings at 12-2, followed by UNC (11-4), Weber State (10-5), Montana State (9-6) and EWU (8-6), with Southern Utah (7-8), Portland State (6-8), Northern Arizona (6-9), Sacramento State (5-9), Idaho State (5-10) and Idaho (1-13) the bottom six teams.
 
* Eastern's remaining six league games includes contests against five of the six teams currently at the bottom of the standings, and the only game versus an opponent ahead of the Eagles is Weber State. Staying at the top of the league standings is important because the top five teams in the league gain a first-round bye in the Big Sky Conference Tournament March 13-16 in Boise, Idaho.
 
* The Vandals are just 4-21 overall and 1-13 in the Big Sky, and haven't won since beating EWU 74-71 on Jan. 3 in Moscow. Just two days before EWU knocked off Northern Colorado 88-78 in overtime on Feb. 16, Idaho lost at home to the Bears by a 75-47 score.
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* The Eagles play four of their last six games on the road, starting with a key conference game versus Southern Utah on Thursday (Feb. 21) at 5:35 p.m. Pacific time in Cedar City, Utah. The Thunderbirds are right on EWU's heels in the league standings, and are 7-8 in the Big Sky and 12-12 on the season. On Saturday (Feb. 23), Eastern travels to Flagstaff to face Northern Arizona in a game that begins at 1:05 p.m. Pacific time. The Lumberjacks are 6-9 in the league and 8-17 overall heading into their game Thursday versus Idaho. Earlier this season, Eastern edged Southern Utah 82-79 before beating NAU 82-64 in a game in which Jacob Davison scored 41 points for the Eagles.
 
 
Top Performers . . .
 
* Redshirt freshman Kim Aiken Jr. scored a team-high 17 points and had six rebounds in 25 minutes of action. It was his third double-figure scoring performance of the season as he came four points from his career high of 21.
 
* Junior Mason Peatling played just 24 minutes, but made 7-of-9 shots from the field to finish with 16 points and 13 rebounds. It was his second double-double of the season in 13 games played, and eighth of his career. An honorable mention All-Big Sky selection a year ago, he now has 26 career games scoring in double figures, with nine rebounding in double figures.
 
* Redshirt freshman Tanner Groves sank seven of eight shots and scored a career-high 14 points as he eclipsed his previous high of 13 against Northern Arizona on Feb. 4.
 
* Senior Jesse Hunt played only 29 minutes and had 12 points, six rebounds and six assists. He now has 25 career double-figure scoring performances in his career to go along with 13 performances with 10 or more rebounds. He has eight double-doubles on the season and 10 in his career.
 
* Junior guard Tyler Kidd contributed eight points and six assists. He has scored in double figures 10 times, all coming in EWU's last 15 games.
 
* Sophomore Jacob Davison did not play after suffering an ankle injury one game earlier versus Northern Colorado on Feb. 16. Before scoring 13 against the Bears, he had scored at least 20 points in six of his last seven games, and eight total this season (nine in his career). He's had 15 performances in double-digits (25 in his career).
 
 
Key Stats . . .
 
* The Eagles had 50 points inside the paint, coming just two from a high of 52 against Northern Colorado one game earlier on Feb. 16. Eastern's 15 second-chance points equaled a season high, and its 24 assists were a season high by three. Eastern had its third-best shooting performance of the season and second-straight of 50 percent or better, sinking 53.2 percent. The Eagles made 54.5 percent against Northern Colorado on Feb. 16 and 57.9 percent against Montana State on Jan. 19. Eastern is now 10-1 this season when it makes at least 45 percent of its shots from the field (3-0 at 50 percent or better) and 0-14 when it doesn't. The Eagles also had a dominating 39-25 rebounding advantage with 12 offensive rebounds, and a margin of plus-14 which was EWU's best of the season by six (EWU out-rebounded UMKC by eight on Nov. 17). Eastern has out-rebounded seven of its last nine opponents after having advantages in just two of its first 16 games. The Eagles are 7-2 when they out-rebound opponents and 3-13 when having less or tied.
 
 
Notables . . .
 
* In the 12 meetings since Idaho re-joined the Big Sky Conference in the 2014-15 season, EWU is 7-5 but the average winning margin in the first 11 was 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.
 
* Since 1996 when Idaho first left the Big Sky Conference, the two schools have now played 26 times, with Eastern winning 15 of them. Idaho leads the all-time series 58-29. Since EWU became a NCAA Division I member in the 1983-84 season, EWU is 18-36 against Idaho (10-15 home, 7-17 away, 1-4 neutral).
 
* Senior guard Cody Benzel remains fourth in school history with 184 3-pointers in his career.  Benzel is tied with Marc Axton on EWU's all-time leaders list (184 from 2002-05). Senior teammate Ty Gibson is 10th with 139. Both of them have played in more than 100 games for the Eagles, with current totals of 126 (third in school history) and 121 (seventh) games of experience, respectively. Jesse Hunt is right behind with 108 games played.
 
* Eastern is now 9-3 at home at Reese Court with a seven-game winning streak, and is 55-9 overall there in the last four-plus seasons (86 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.
 
 
More Comments from Head Coach Shantay Legans . . .
 
On Inside Game: "Even though they are giving you threes, you have to be disciplined enough to keep going inside and battling those guys. As we did that it worked well, and in the second half you could see we were really focusing on that. Our rebounding was great – we beat them on the boards by 14 and we got a lot of offensive rebounds."
 
On Playing Younger Players in Second Half: "We were able to put some younger players in there who are our future. We had some players in who could really make plays, and our future is bright. I couldn't be more excited about our basketball team and where we are headed. They are all great students, great kids and great people in the community. They took their time seriously and it's important to them. They have players ahead of them teaching them and showing them how to understand how it's done. Experience is huge. One of my mentors told me, 'the older you get the better you get.'"
 
On Beating Vandals: "Coach (Don) Verlin is a great coach, Coach (Kirk) Earlywine hired me and Coach (Zac) Claus played here – they are a great staff and great guys. We lost two games to them last year and we lost the first meeting this year, so they always play great against us."