If the Eagle-Bobcat rematch is any indication, next month's Big Sky Conference Tournament will be a dandy.
 
In a game with 12 lead changes and eight ties, the Eastern Washington University men's basketball team couldn't hold off Montana State late and fell to the Bobcats 74-66 on Thursday (Feb. 7) as the second half of the Big Sky Conference schedule began for the Eagles at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse in Bozeman, Mont.
 
Eastern fell out of fourth-place in the Big Sky Conference standings with the loss, and is now 6-5 while MSU moves a half-game ahead of EWU at 7-5. Eastern, which plays at Montana on Saturday (Feb. 9), earlier this season hosted and beat Montana and Montana State in back-to-back games.
 
Reigning Big Sky Conference Player of the Week Jacob Davison paced the Eagles with 24 points, and Tyler Kidd added 18 points. After an earlier stretch of 6:51 without a field goal, the Bobcats ended up making seven of their last 11 shots. A 13-3 run overcame a nine-point Eastern lead, then MSU scored the final 10 points in the last 2:08 to wipe out EWU's final advantage of the game at 66-64.
 
Eastern was out-shot 45.5 percent to 41.5 percent, and EWU made just 7-of-25 3-point attempts for 28 percent. But the biggest difference was at the line where EWU made 5-of-8 free throws compared to 19-of-24 for the Bobcats. The Eagles had two more field goals than MSU, and used a 12-0 run in the second half to open a nine-point lead at 57-42 with 10:22 to play.
 
"We were getting downhill and getting some stops," said Eastern head coach Shantay Legans of his team's big run. "Our players were playing some great defense, we were rebounding the ball and we were keeping them off the line. They got to the line a lot more than us, and that's a big difference in points. When you make five free throws on the road and they make 19, it's hard to stay in those games and try to battle. I guess we have to do a better job driving to the basket hard and strong, and make sure we finish better at the rim."
 
Despite the loss, Eastern has won five of its last seven games. 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 first half featured eight lead changes and four ties, and MSU used a late stretch of five-straight Eastern misses to take a 34-32 lead at intermission.
 
Eastern put together an impressive stretch of offense and defense in the second half, with Davison scoring seven of EWU's points during a 12-0 run to take a 57-48 lead with 10:22 left. Eastern made 4-of-6 shots in that stretch, while MSU missed five in a row and went 6:51 without a field goal and 4:48 without scoring at all.
 
But the Bobcats came back with their own 13-3 run to knot the game at 62. Eastern got big baskets by Kidd at the 4:01 mark and Jesse Hunt with 2:35 left, but MSU's Harold Frey hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:08 left, another jumper with 50 ticks remaining and then three free throws in the final 27 seconds. He finished with a team-high 22 for the Bobcats.
 
"We just have to play smarter," Legans added. "It's a tough one to lose tonight – we gave one away."
 

Records . . .
 
* The Eagles are 8-14 overall, and 6-5 in Big Sky Conference play. Eastern beat pre-season favorite Montana 78-71 on Jan. 10 and Montana State 85-81 on Jan. 19 in Cheney. In those consecutive games the Eagles had season-best shooting percentages, including what is still a high-water mark for EWU of 57.9 percent versus the Bobcats. The Eagles are now 7-3 at home this season and 1-11 on the road, with the lone victory away from home coming at Sacramento State 94-92 in overtime on Jan. 26.
 
* The Bobcats are 10-12 overall and 7-5 in the league, and feature 6-foot-5 senior Tyler Hall, who is averaging 20.8 points per game and a league-leading 3.6 3-pointers made per game. He became the all-time leading scorer in Big Sky Conference history when EWU hosted the Bobcats, surpassing the previous record of 2,169 by former Eagle Bogdan Bliznyuk. Hall scored just five in the rematch versus EWU and now has 2,302 career points for a team which leads the Big Sky with an average of 9.1 3-pointers in league play. The Bobcats had just five versus EWU.
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* Concluding a stretch of four games in eight days, the Eagles will travel to Missoula and face Montana on Saturday (Feb. 9) at 6:05 p.m. Pacific time. Earlier this season, Eastern hosted Montana and Montana State in back-to-back games, but those came nine days apart.
 

Top Performers . . .
 
* Sophomore Jacob Davison, coming off a 41-point effort against Northern Arizona to rank as the seventh-most in school history, scored 24 points against MSU. This week's Big Sky Conference Player of the Week made 10-of-22 shots from the field and also had four rebounds. He's scored at least 20 points in five of his last six games, and seven total this season (eight in his career). He's had 13 performances in double-digits (23 in his career).
 
* Junior guard Tyler Kidd finished with 18 points, five assists and a pair of steals. He made 7-of-14 shots as he came just two points from his career high of 20 against Sacramento State on Jan. 26. He has scored in double figures nine times, all coming in EWU's last 12 games.
 
* Junior Mason Peatling scored eight points and grabbed 10 rebounds after having not played in two games last week with an injury. An honorable mention All-Big Sky selection a year ago, he now has 23 career games scoring in double figures, with eight rebounding in double figures and six double-doubles (one this season).
 
* Senior Jesse Hunt had seven points and seven rebounds. He had entered the game with 23 career double-figure scoring performances in his career to go along with 12 performances with 10 or more rebounds. He has seven double-doubles on the season and eight in his career. 
 

Key Stats . . .

 
* Eastern sank just 27-of-65 shots from the field for 41.5 percent, and was out-rebounded 37-35. Both teams had 15 turnovers. Eastern is now 8-0 this season when it makes at least 45 percent of its shots from the field (1-0 at 50 percent or better) and 0-14 when it doesn't. Eastern has also out-rebounded five of its last six opponents after having advantages in just two of its first 16 games.
 
  
Notables . . .

* Eastern has still won 10 of the last 14 meetings against MSU, including an 84-79 Eagle victory at home in 2018 and an 85-81 victory earlier this season in Cheney. Prior to that, EWU lost to the Bobcats 91-90 in overtime on Jan. 28, 2017, in Bozeman. Eastern has won 20 of the last 33, and is 12-3 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 41-46 all-time against MSU, including a 33-37 record as a member of NCAA Division I (23-12 in Cheney, 10-25 in Bozeman). The records include two MSU forfeits in the 1993-94 season.
 
* 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 11th with 134. Both of them have played in more than 100 games for the Eagles, with current totals of 123 (fourth in school history) and 118 (ninth) games of experience, respectively. Jesse Hunt is right behind with 105 games played.
 
* Eastern is now 7-3 at home at Reese Court, and is 53-9 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.
 
 
More Comments from Head Coach Shantay Legans . . .

On Late in Second Half:  "We had some poor execution near the end of the game. We have to step up and make plays. We had 15 turnovers and didn't play smart toward the end of the ballgame. We didn't make the plays we needed to make and had some bad turnovers in spots we usually don't make. We have to be smarter at the end of the game, and throughout the game because there a lot of plays that hurt us."
 
On MSU Zone: "They did hurt us. We had some open looks and didn't take them when we had them. And when it got down in the shot clock we needed some penetration and didn't drive the ball well against the zone. We have to make sure if we play them again we have to be prepared for that."