The good news is that the Eagles are still in fifth.
 
The bad for the Eastern Washington University men's basketball team came in the form of 35.7 percent shooting from the field and a 12-rebound deficit as Southern Utah pulled away from the Eagles in the second half for a 76-62 Big Sky Conference victory in Cedar City, Utah, on Thursday (Feb. 21).
 
A 12-2 run by the Thunderbirds mid-way through the second half helped open a 15-point SUU lead and break open a close game that had included eight lead changes and six ties. Southern Utah, a 77 percent shooting team from the free throw line, sank four free throws in the last 1:29 to close out the game.
 
"It was a tough shooting night," said Eastern head coach Shantay Legans. "Southern Utah came out with a great game plan and kept us at bay whenever we made a run back at them. They shot the ball well, but we didn't come and play defensively like we needed to."
 
Jesse Hunt paced the Eagles with 19 points and nine rebounds, and Tyler Kidd finished with 17 points and a pair of assists. Kim Aiken Jr. came off the bench to contribute nine points, but the Thunderbirds held EWU leading scorer Mason Peatling to just nine points and three rebounds on 3-of-11 shooting from the field.
 
Despite the loss, Eastern still is in fifth in the Big Sky at 8-7, a half-game ahead of the Thunderbirds at 8-8. Eastern has still won seven of its last 11 games in league play, and is 9-7 since starting the season 1-9. Eastern is now just 1-13 on opponent home courts, but is 9-3 at Reese Court where the Eagles have a seven-game winning streak.
 
"We didn't have the energy we need to have on the road to win games," said Legans. "You have to do that if you want to go on the road and beat a team that is fighting for where we are. We have to do a better job of stepping up to the plate and being ready to fight."
 
Things were looking good early for the Eagles as they used a 10-0 run to take an early 15-12 lead. Mason Peatling had a pair of layups in the run, with 3-pointers scored by Ty Gibson and Jack Perry. That came during a stretch in which EWU made 7-of-9 shots, and were 10-of-21 at that point.
 
But Eastern missed six-straight shots late in the half and fell behind at halftime 33-30. Eastern suffered through another 0-of-6 shooting stretch early in the second half and fell behind 59-45 with 6:39 left on a 12-2 run by the Thunderbirds.
 
Hunt scored six-straight points for the Eagles, but an eight-point margin was the closest EWU could get the rest of the way.
 
 
Records . . .
 
* The Eagles are now 10-16 overall, and 7-7 in Big Sky Conference play, and remain in fifth place in the league standings. The Eagles are 9-3 at home this season and 1-13 on the road, with the lone victory away from home coming at Sacramento State 94-92 in overtime on Jan. 26.
 
* Eastern's remaining five league games includes contests against four 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 Thunderbirds are right on EWU's heels in the league standings, and are 8-8 in the Big Sky and 13-12 on the season. The Thunderbirds entered the game leading the league with an average of 22.9 free throw attempts per game, making 77.0 percent of them to rank second.
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* On Saturday (Feb. 23), Eastern travels to snowy Flagstaff to face Northern Arizona in a game that is scheduled to begin at 1:05 p.m. Pacific time. Since Wednesday night, Flagstaff has had to deal with two feet of snow leading to closures of the two main Interstate highways that intersect the city. The Lumberjacks are 7-9 in the league and 9-17 overall heading following a 75-54 victory 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. Eastern will play its final two home games of the season on Feb. 28 versus Sacramento State and March 2 versus Portland State on Senior Day.
 
 
Top Performers . . .
 
* Senior Jesse Hunt paced EWU with 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field with 3-of-5 3-pointers. He now has 26 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 was EWU's other player in double figures with 17, making 7-of-8 from the free throw line. He has scored in double figures 11 times, all coming in EWU's last 16 games.
 
* Redshirt freshman Kim Aiken Jr. scored nine for the Eagles. He entered the game with three double-figure scoring performances of the season.
 
* Junior Mason Peatling chipped in nine and had just three rebounds, but had entered the game averaging 16.9 points and 8.0 rebounds in league play. He was coming off his second double-double of the season 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.
 
* Sophomore Jacob Davison has not played since suffering an ankle injury 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 . . .
 
* Eastern made just 10 of its last 35 shots (29 percent) after opening the game 10-of-21. Southern Utah, which had four players score in double figures, sank 47.3 percent of its shots overall, 11-of-19 3-pointers for 57.9 percent and 11-of-19 free throws for 57.9 percent. Eastern's percentage was its lowest in EWU's last 21 games, while the 3-point percentage for the Thunderbirds was the highest against the Eagles this season  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 0-15 when it doesn't.
 
* The Eagles were out-rebounded by 12 (40-28), equaling EWU's largest deficit since getting out-rebounded by Oregon 50-34 in EWU's second game of the season. Eastern has still out-rebounded seven of its last 10 opponents after having advantages in just two of its first 16 games. The Eagles are 7-2 when they out-rebound opponents and 3-14 when having less or tied.
 
 
Notables . . .
 
* The Eagles are 12-6 all-time against Southern Utah (7-1 in Cheney, 4-5 in Cedar City, 1-0 on a neutral court), including an 82-79 win earlier this season in Cheney. Last season, EWU recorded an 82-70 victory over the Thunderbirds on March 9, 2018, in the quarterfinals of the Big Sky Conference Tournament in Reno, Nevada. Earlier in the year, EWU had its eight-game winning streak over SUU snapped with a 66-62 overtime loss on Jan. 20, 2018, in Cedar City, Utah. The Eagles have triumphed in the six five home meetings since losing the first game in Cheney in the series by a 70-68 score on Dec. 21, 1993. The Thunderbirds joined the Big Sky in the 2012-13 season and EWU is 11-2 versus them since then.
* 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 141. Both of them have played in more than 100 games for the Eagles, with current totals of 127 (third in school history) and 122 (sixth) games of experience, respectively. Jesse Hunt is right behind with 109 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 Toughness: "Southern Utah said they were going to play physical and they did play physical. We have to make sure we are ready for that every single time. If you want to get road wins you have to play tough and you have to play hard. You can't just do it at home, but you have to be able to do it on the road too. We haven't been able to find the right combination to get our guys going on the road. But we have to make sure we shore it up because it's going to be a huge game for us Saturday – maybe a must-win game."
 
On Rebounding: "You have to be ready to bang and be tough, and not look at the referees for calls. You just have to go play and rebound the basketball. We got our butts kicked on the glass – it was one of our worst margins of the year. You can play good defense, but you have to rebound it after defensive stops. You can't let teams get offensive rebounds, throw it back around and get open threes. If you aren't getting rebounds you aren't doing what you are supposed to do. It's going to be tough to win games like this. We have to give credit to Southern Utah for playing a great game tonight. They stepped up and won a huge game."