Out-rebounded and out-shot by a large margin, the Eastern Washington University men's basketball team couldn't complete a season sweep of Idaho and lost to the Vandals 74-71 Thursday (Feb. 13) in a Big Sky Conference game at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash.
 
Eastern fell behind by 18 at halftime and 24 early in the second half, and had a flurry of rallies after that to cut the lead to three with 1:16 to play and two with four ticks of the clock left. But disadvantages of 46-28 in rebounds and 50 percent to 38 percent shooting was too much to overcome as EWU missed four of its final five shots of the game, including a 35-footer at the buzzer that could have sent the game to overtime.
 
Senior Mason Peatling had his sixth double-double in eight games with 32 points, 10 rebounds and a pair of blocked shots to lead EWU. Junior Jacob Davison also scored 21 points for the Eagles – 18 in the second half -- and went over the 1,000-point mark in his career. Kim Aiken Jr. chipped in 10, and redshirt freshman Casson Rouse came off the bench to score seven of his 10 points in the second half to help spark the Eagles late.
 
Idaho senior Trevon Allen poured in 32 points and had 11 rebounds and seven steals in the Idaho victory. Eastern lost for just the second time in 11 home games this season, but still remains in a second-place tie in the league standings.
 
"They jumped all over us," said Eastern head coach Shantay Legans. "Offensively I thought we took some quick shots and they beat us on the boards. When teams get you by 18 on the glass and we turn the ball over 17 times, you aren't going to win a lot of ballgames. We got down early and lost a game."
 
Eastern led early 6-2, but the Vandals went on a 16-0 run as EWU went 5:19 without scoring. In that run alone, Allen had seven points and three steals for Idaho, which opened the early 18-6 lead. The Vandals led by as many as 18 and no fewer than eight the rest of the half, and led at intermission 41-23. Allen hit seven of his first 10 shots and had 14 in the first 20 minutes, as the Vandals out-shot EWU 49 percent to 29 percent.
 
Idaho bumped the led to 24 in the second half at 49-24 when EWU's shooting for the night slipped to 25 percent (7-of-28). But then Davison got the Eagles going, scoring 10 of EWU's points in a 16-2 run that cut the deficit to 51-41 with 14:16 left. Eastern was able to cut the lead to eight at 10;51 and 10:10 left, but Idaho used a 7-0 run ii including five points by Allen -- to go up by 15 with 9:08 remaining.
 
A 10-2 run got the Eagles back within single digits, then cut the lead to six at the 4:36 mark. But once again Idaho used a run of its own to bump the lead to 12.
 
Eastern followed with a 9-0 run, using a steal and layup by Davison to pull within 72-69 with 1:16 left. Idaho missed four free throws after that to give EWU life, but the Eagles missed their next three shots and Allen all but sealed it with a free throw with eight seconds left.
 
Now three games into the second half of the league season, seeding for the Big Sky Conference Tournament March 11-14 in Boise, Idaho, becomes an important consideration. The top five teams receive a bye to the quarterfinal round on Thursday, March 12, while the other six play on Wednesday, March 11, and must win four games to win the title and the automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.
 
 
Records . . .
 
* Eastern is now 16-8 overall and 9-3 in the league, having fallen out of first place in the Big Sky Conference standings with a 92-82 loss at Montana on Feb. 6. After games played on Thursday, the Eagles are 1 1/2 games behind the Grizzlies (10-3) and is tied with Northern Colorado (9-4) for third. That trio is followed by Southern Utah (7-6), Montana State (7-6), Northern Arizona (7-7), Portland State (6-7), Weber State (6-8) and Sacramento State (6-8). Eastern had originally moved into first place in the standings when Montana lost its second-straight game, 88-81 to Portland State on Jan. 30.
 
* Idaho is now 7-17 overall and 3-10 in the Big Sky. Despite the Eagles entering Thursday in second place in the league standings and Idaho in 11th, Eastern only edged the Vandals by a 78-75 score on Jan. 16 in Moscow. Idaho is coached by former Eagle Zac Claus, who lettered for EWU in the 1996-97 and 1997-98 seasons after transferring from Nebraska. He made his first return appearance at Reese Court as a collegiate head coach.
 
* Eastern fell out of first place in the Big Sky Conference standings with a 92-82 loss at Montana on Jan. 6, but improved to 9-3 in the league two days later with a convincing 74-49 home victory over Montana State. Despite playing its fourth game in eight days, the Eagles rolled to a 35-16 halftime lead with its best defensive half of the season to improve to 9-1 at Reese Court this season. In leading by as many as 19 in the first half and 36 in the second, the 25-point winning margin was EWU's best versus a Big Sky opponent and second-best versus a NCAA Division I opponent this season.
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* Eastern goes back on the road for a Big Sky Conference game Saturday (Feb. 15) at dangerous Portland State at 7:05 p.m. Pacific time at Viking Pavilion in Portland, Ore., in a game televised by Eleven Sports. Portland State is 6-7 in the Big Sky and 12-13 overall, and is coming off and 83-71 upset win at Northern Colorado on Monday (Feb. 10). The Bears had a chance to pull into a tie with Eastern for second place in the Big Sky standings, and now the Vikings are at home with hopes of pulling off another upset.
 
* Eastern beat Portland State 71-69 in the previous meeting in Cheney on Jan. 4. The Vikings are 7-2 at home and 4-11 on the road this season (1-0 on neutral courts), and are out-scoring opponents by an average of 12.0 points per game at home, while getting out-scored by an average of nearly five points per game away from the Viking Pavilion.
 
* The Vikings rank third in NCAA Division I in offensive rebounds per game (14.6), and are 32nd nationally and first in the league in steals (8.2). The Vikings average 77.0 points per game to rank 41st nationally and second in the league behind EWU. Holland Woods, a 6-foot-1 junior guard, paces Portland State with averages of 17.3 points, 5.2 assists, 1.9 steals and 2.4 rebounds per game. Senior 6-2 guard Matt Hauser averages 14.1 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.4 steals. Senior 6-6-6 forward Alonzo Walker averages 10.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 0.7 blocks, and 6-8 senior center Sal Nuhu chips in 9.8 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per outing.
 
 
Other Top Performances . . .
 
* Davison scored 21 to give him 1,008 points in his 80-game career, and became the 23rd player in Eastern's 112-year basketball history to hit the 1,000-point mark. Peatling went over the 1,000-point mark on Jan. 25, and now is 16th all-time at EWU with 1,107.
 
* Davison made 7-of-12 shots from the field and 6-of-7 free throws, and also had three assists and a pair of steals. Peatling made 4-of-7 from the field and 12-of-14 from the free throw line, and Rouse sank 4-of-7 of his shots with a pair of 3-pointers. But the rest of the team was just 6-of-30, including a 3-of-16 shooting night by Aiken, who made just 2-of-13 3-point attempts and finished with four rebounds and four steals. Junior starter Jack Perry had a team-high seven assists with four rebounds and six points, and his 2-of-5 performance from the 3-point stripe was part of an overall 8-of-32 (25 percent) effort by EWU.
 
 
More Notes . . .
 
* Since 1996 when Idaho first left the Big Sky Conference, the two schools have now played 28 times, with Eastern winning 16 of them. Idaho leads the all-time series 58-31. Since EWU became a NCAA Division I member in the 1983-84 season, EWU is 19-37 against Idaho (10-16 home, 8-17 away, 1-4 neutral). In the 14 meetings since Idaho re-joined the Big Sky Conference in the 2014-15 season, EWU is 8-6, 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.
 
* The meeting on Jan. 10, 2015, in Moscow was EWU's first-ever league victory over the UI, and was the first league meeting between the schools since Feb. 17, 1996. The Vandals rejoined the Big Sky Conference in the 2014-15 season after previously competing in the league from 1963-1996, winning tournament championships in 1980, 1981, 1989 and 1990. Eastern began playing in the Big Sky in 1987-88, and won the tourney title in 2004 and again in 2015. In those previous nine seasons of co-existence in the Big Sky, the Vandals won all 18 league meetings between the two schools, as well as the Big Sky Conference Tournament Championship game in 1990 won 65-62 by the Vandals on a shot at the buzzer by Ricardo Boyd. In all, Idaho had won 22-straight against the Eagles, who went nearly 14 years between victories (1/15/86 to 11/29/99).
 
* Idaho's Trevon Allen is among the Big Sky's leading scorers, entering Thursday's game averaging 21.0 points to rank second in the league and 16th in NCAA Division I. He's from Clarkston, Wash., and made plenty of trips to Cheney during his high school days to play league games. But this was his last visit, and he is one of the league's most talented guards with averages of 4.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 1.6 steals and 2.0 3-pointers per game.
 
* Montana is the two-time defending Big Sky Conference champion, and EWU has missed out on NCAA Tournament berths by falling to the Grizzlies in both the 2018 (82-65) and 2019 (68-62) championship games of the league tournament. Both EWU and UM are the preseason picks to win the league title in the 2019-20 season – Eastern by the coaches and Montana by the media.
 
* Eastern has seven games remaining – four at home and three on the road. Eastern had its best non-conference record (7-4) since beginning the 2015-16 season with an 8-2 mark and going 9-4 in the preseason. While the Eagles are now 9-2 at home thus far, Eastern is 7-6 on the road, having registered one of its biggest victories in school history, an 87-82 home win on Nov. 26 over mid-major power Belmont in the final game for both schools in the Gotham Classic.
 
 
More Comments from Head Coach Shantay Legans . . .
 
On Rebounding & Turnovers: "We have to do better as a staff and as players. When that ball goes up on the rim, rebounding is nothing but effort and hustle. We have to figure out why they didn't come prepared to hustle and get those rebounds. We had 17 assists, but 17 and 17 (turnovers) is not very good. We have to be better all the way around, throughout our team -- players 1-to-18 and our entire coaching staff."
 
On Not Being Able to Buy a Basket From the 3-Point Line: "We couldn't. We have to get guys some good-looking shots, make the right plays and do the right thing. We didn't really handle the success shooting early well. When we get wide-open looks we have to knock them down."