The Eagles followed a familiar script in a second-straight three-point loss to a Power 5 conference opponent.
 
The Eastern Washington University men's basketball team led for much of the second half, but a late Arizona run led to another narrow defeat against a Pac-12 Conference foe as EWU fell 70-67 at the McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz..
 
Eastern led for 13:49 in in a game that featured seven ties and six lead changes, and was up by six with 8:42 to play. But the Wildcats used a late 14-4 run to hand EWU a second-straight narrow defeat, with the Eagles having lost 71-68 at Washington State in their season opener on Nov. 25.
 
"I watched them (on video) and I watched us, and I thought we were better," said Eastern head coach Shantay Legans. "But today we weren't, and I hope we get another chance down the line. It hurts right now, because we can't keep saying we should have won these games."
 
Sophomore Tyler Robertson led four Eagles in double figures with a career-high 14 points to go along with a team-high five rebounds. However, the Eagles made just 25 percent of their shots in the second half after sinking 55 percent in the first half to take a 43-38 lead at intermission.
 
"I'm proud of the way we played," said Legans, whose team led by six at intermission at Washington State.  "Arizona made great second half adjustments. We have to have our players better prepared for the second half. We got some great looks, gave up some offensive rebounds and had a lot of turnovers, which aren't characteristic of our team."
 
Eastern made 8-of-17 of its 3-point attempts in the first half, but was just 2-of-15 in the second period. Arizona, which started players standing 7-feet-1 and 6-11, out-rebounded EWU 47-27 and had a 17-2 advantage in second-chance points. Eastern also had 18 turnovers, helping the Wildcats to a 20-12 advantage in points off turnovers.
 
"We didn't deserve to win this game," added Legans. "We didn't do the right things."
 
 
Records
 
The Eagles are 0-2, having opened the season with a 71-68 loss to Washington State on Nov. 25. Eastern led for 33:07 of that game before a late 13-5 Cougar run turned the tide. Eastern had only eight players available for the game and just six played.
 
Now 2-0, the Wildcats have already had three games canceled or postponed, and the lone game they've played previously was a 74-55 victory over Grambling State on Nov. 27.
 
The Eagles entered the 2020-21 season with four starters back from last year's squad which finished 23-8 overall and 16-4 in the Big Sky to win the outright league title. The Covid-19 Pandemic resulted in the cancellation of the season, including the conclusion of the Big Sky Conference Tournament and the entire NCAA Tournament.
 
A year ago, Arizona was 21-11 overall and finished 10-8 in the Pac-12 Conference. The Wildcats beat Washington 77-70 in the first round of the Pac-12 Conference Tournament on March 11, but the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in the cancellation of their game the next day versus USC, as well as the rest of the postseason.
 
 
Top EWU Performers
 
Robertson made 5-of-7 shots from the floor to finish with a career-high 15 points in his first game of the season, eclipsing his previous high of nine set as a freshman. He also had five rebounds, and drew the foul that disqualified Arizona 6-11 forward Jordan Brown from the game.
Junior Tanner Groves scored 13, a week after equaling his career high with 17 versus Washington State. He hit 4-of-7 shots and had five rebounds before fouling out.
Sophomore Casson Rouse, who didn't play versus WSU, had 13 in his first game of the season. He sank a trio of 3-pointers and had four assists to share team-high honors with Jack Perry.
Sophomore Jacob Groves, the younger brother of junior Tanner Groves, chipped in 10 points – all in the first half.  Both Groves brothers are graduates of Shadle Park High School in Spokane, Wash.
Junior Kim Aiken Jr., a preseason All-Big Sky selection, was held to six points and five rebounds on 1-of-8 shooting from the field.
Senior Jacob Davison, another preseason All-Big Sky pick, also had only six points on 3-of-11 shooting. He was 0-of-5 from the 3-point line as he and Aiken combined to go 1-12 from the arc.
 
 
Game Details & Turning Point
 
The Wildcats led early 22-14, but a 7-0 run helped the Eagles take a 43-38 lead at halftime. A 3-pointer by Rouse and a driving layin by Davison capped the half for EWU, which was led by 10 points apiece by the Groves brothers.
 
Despite missing its first nine shots of the second half, a 3-pointer by Rouse tied the game at 47. Later, after a Robertson 3-pointer and two free throws by Aiken, the Eagles took their biggest lead of the half at 56-48 with 8:42 remaining on another trey by Rouse.
 
Eastern led 58-53 with 6:26 to play before Arizona went on its 14-4 run to take a 67-62 lead with 1:37 to play. Groves had a 3-point play with 41 seconds to close the game to a single possession, but EWU had a turnover late with a chance to tie. The Wildcats made four free throws in the last 13 seconds to clinch it.
 
 
Series Notes
 
The Eagles have played the Wildcats once before, a 79-45 loss on Dec. 28, 2004, in the Fiesta Bowl Classic in Tucson, Ariz. Arizona was ranked No. 14 nationally at the time, and EWU went on to beat Butler 67-62 two days later to finish third in the tourney.
 
After the Arizona game, Eastern is now 3-48 versus current members of the Pac-12 since EWU moved to NCAA Division I in the 1983-84 season (13-91 all-time). Eastern snapped a 21-game losing streak versus the Pac-12 with a 67-61 victory at Stanford on Nov. 14, 2017.
 
 
 
More Game Notes
 
Ellis Magnuson, who started all 31 Eagles games as a freshman last season, did not play for the second-straight game.
 
A year ago, Eastern won its fourth Big Sky regular season title in school history (2000, 2004, 2015, 2020), but now joins the 2004 team with the only outright titles. Eastern has gone on to win two Big Sky Tournament titles (2004 and 2015) to advance to the NCAA Tournament. The Eagles also have national postseason appearances in the NIT (2003) and the College Basketball Invitational (2016, 2017, 2018).
 
Arizona's James Akinjo, who scored a team-high 15 versus EWU, earned honorable mention on the preseason All-Pac-12 Conference team, and was the Big East Conference Freshman of the Year in 2018-19 while playing for Georgetown. Akinjo scored 536 points in 40 career games at Georgetown, averaging 13.4 points and 5.1 assists while shooting 36.1 percent from behind the 3-point line. Six-foot-11 Jordan Brown played in his first game since March 21, 2019 – a span of 614 days – when the Wildcats beat Grambling on Nov. 27. Brown played his freshman season at the University of Nevada before transferring to Arizona and sitting out the 2019-20 season.
 
Arizona's roster features nine players that were not on the roster last year, plus two additional players who were on the roster (Akinjo, J. Brown) but were not able to play after transferring in from other schools. Among the team's personnel losses were three players who were drafted into the NBA. The Wildcats rank 338th among 357 NCAA Division I teams in percentage of points returning for the 2020-21 season (14.7 percent), and are 343rd in average number of starts returning (1.3).
 
The Wildcats are led by veteran head coach Sean Miller, who is in his 12th season as head coach at Arizona and has now won 287 games. He has won 407 in his head coaching career, including five previous seasons at Xavier. His teams have advanced to the NCAA Tournament 11 times and the NIT once.
 
 
On the Horizon
 
With additions to the schedule always possible, The Eagles play their other two non-conference games next week -- road contests at UNLV on Wednesday, Dec. 9, and at Saint Mary's on Monday, Dec. 16. Eastern will also play its Big Sky Conference openers on the road at Northern Arizona on back-to-back days on Dec. 18 and 19 in Flagstaff, Ariz. Both of those games will begin at 11:05 a.m. Pacific time, and were moved from the previous dates of Dec. 3 and 5.
 
UNLV was 17-15 a year ago, and was 12-6 in the Mountain West Conference before falling to Boise State 67-61 in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Tournament. Saint Mary's was 26-8 overall and 11-5 in the West Coast Conference a year ago. The Gaels beat Pepperdine (89-82 in two overtimes) and BYU (51-50) in the WCC Tournament, but fell to Gonzaga (84-66) in the title game. 
 
The Eagles are scheduled to open Big Sky Conference play on Dec. 18 at Northern Arizona. Eastern's school-record 16 Big Sky wins a year ago included sweeps over seven of the league's 10 other teams, and a split versus Idaho State and Idaho. Eastern was swept by Montana, which had won the two previous regular season and tournament titles. The Eagles had just two seniors – Mason Peatling and Tyler Kidd.
 
 
More Comments from Head Coach Shantay Legans
 
On Rebounding: "We gave up 17 offensive rebounds, and you just have to go get the rebounds and finish the play. We have to be tougher than we were. It was a disappointment – we didn't come into this game thinking we were going to lose."
 
On Defense:  "I'm pretty sure our first possession defense was good, and we held them to around 20 percent. When you do that, you should win. But we didn't do a good job rebounding those misses, and that's what happened and led to the loss."
 
On Rouse and Robertson: "Casson and Tyler are really good, and they are two reasons why I'm so high on this team. We have a lot of depth on this team and we can call on a lot of players when we need to. We have a really good team, but we have to win these close games, especially when we get into crunch time. We'll get better – it's a fun to coach and watch play. We just have to make sure we're making those toughness plays to win games."
 
On Falling by Three Points to a Pac-12 Opponent Again: "It's just disappointing right now. I wanted so much for these players to feel a win against an opponent like this, and feel happy on this road trip. We just have to do the little things to win games like this."