Eastern Beats Lumberjacks 80-70 With Hot Stretch
 
Eagles win for 10th time in last 12 games, as Mason Peatling leads the way with 27 points, 15 rebounds and six assists
 
For a 7 1/2 minute stretch, the Eagles were as workmanlike as ever.
 
With its offense and defense clicking late in the first half and early in the second, the Eastern Washington University men's basketball team downed Northern Arizona 80-70 on Saturday (Feb. 22) in a Big Sky Conference game at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash.
 
Eastern out-scored the Lumberjacks 25-3 during a decisive run spanning halftime. The Eagles held NAU without a field goal during that 7:28 stretch and opened a 19-point lead early in the second half. Eastern dominated the glass, holding a 42-30 rebounding advantage and out-scoring NAU 42-28 inside the paint.
 
"We have a team that plays really smart and we have some really good players out there," said Eastern head coach Shantay Legans. "Not all the guys are hitting on all cylinders right now, but they are all competing and playing tough. When you get contributions from everybody in the game, that makes it easy to coach a team like this. Our assistant coaches do an amazing job of getting us prepared, and we are ready for about anything."
 
Senior Mason Peatling continued his tear during Big Sky play with 27 points, 15 rebounds and six assists. He now has had 12 double-doubles on the season with nine in his last 11 games. Sophomore Kim Aiken Jr. finished the afternoon with 12 points and eight boards, and junior Jacob Davison scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half.
 
Junior Jack Perry hit a trio of 3-pointers and was the fourth Eagle in double figures with 13. Redshirt freshman Casson Rouse came off the bench to chip in seven points and equaled his career high with five assists.
 
"These types of games get us prepared and battle-tested," said Legans. "Northern Arizona is a really good team, so you have to make sure you come with your 'A' game. They got their 3-pointers, but they didn't win. There were a couple of stretches where our defense came up big."
 
Eastern extended its home winning streak versus NAU to nine with the victory, having not lost to the Lumberjacks at Reese Court in more than 10 years since Jan. 15, 2010. The Eagles have now won 10 of their last 12, and the Lumberjacks were nearly as hot entering Saturday's contest, winning eight of its last 11.
 
With four games left in the league season before the Big Sky Conference Tournament, Eastern sits at 19-8 overall and 12-4 in the league. It's already the school's fifth-highest win total in 37 seasons as a member of Division I, and the fifth-most league wins in 33 seasons in the Big Sky
 
Now well 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.
 
Northern Arizona led for much of the first half until EWU used a 6-0 run to knot the score at 21 with 9:24 to play. The Lumberjacks led by three at 34-31 with 2:36 left, but would go 0-of-4 the rest of the half and trail 40-34 at intermission.
 
Aiken, who scored 12 points in the first half, scored seven of EWU's points in a half-ending 9-0 run. Peatling added 10 points in a half in which EWU was out-shot 45 percent to 42 percent, but had advantages in turnovers forced at 5-2 and rebounding at 20-14.
 
Northern Arizona missed its first six shots in the second half, giving it a stretch of 7:28 without a field goal and 10-straight misses. Eastern took advantage, taking a 56-37 lead with a collective 25-3 run spanning halftime. Back-to-back dunks by Davison and Peatling put the Eagles up 19 with 13:37 to play.
 
The Lumberjacks did battle back to cut the lead to six at the 7:20 mark, but EWU responded with a 7-2 run. Peatling scored five of the points, including a 3-pointer with 5:55 left that put EWU up by 11. A triple by Perry gave EWU a 12-point cushion at the 4:23 mark.
 
The closest NAU came the rest of the way was seven, and EWU closed out the game by making six free throws in the last 33 seconds to close out the victory.
 
 
Records . . .
 
* Eastern is now 19-8 overall and 12-4 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. The Eagles entered Saturday one game behind the Grizzlies (12-3) and were tied with Northern Colorado (11-4) for second. That trio was followed by Northern Arizona (9-7), Montana State (8-7), Portland State (8-8), Southern Utah (7-8), Weber State (6-9) and Sacramento State (6-10). Idaho (3-12) and Idaho State (3-12) rounded out the standings. 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.
 
* The Eagles were coming off a 77-76 victory over Sacramento State Thursday (Feb. 20) at Reese Court in which EWU led by as many as 17 in the first half and then fell behind by six in the second half. Eastern is 11-2 at home this season, but is also an impressive 8-6 on opponent home courts.
 
* Northern Arizona is led by first-year head coach Shane Burcur, and are 15-11 overall and are 9-8 in the league, having entered Saturday fourth in the Big Sky after a 78-61 road win Thursday at Idaho. The Lumberjacks had a five-game winning streak ended by the Eagles in Flagstaff, Ariz., on Feb. 3, but have still won eight of their last 12. Eastern entered Saturday's game slightly hotter and now has won 10 of its 12, with the only difference entering Saturday's contest the 77-66 victory over NAU. The Eagles have lost twice to league-leading Montana, plus once each to the two bottom teams in the league – Idaho and Idaho State. 
 
* Cameron Shelton, a 6-2 sophomore guard, entered Saturday's game leading the Lumberjacks with an average of 13.9 points per game, and also averages 6.0 rebounds 4.4 assists and 1.4 steals per game. Six-foot-9 senior Brooks DeBisschop averages 12.1 points, 8.0 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.3 steals and 0.9 blocked shots per outing. Bernie Andre chips is 10.1 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. Shelton paced four Lumberjacks in double figures with 20 against EWU.
 
 
What's Next . . .
 
* An impressive 8-6 on the road this season, the Eastern Washington University men's basketball team makes its final Big Sky Conference road trip of the season when it plays at Southern Utah Thursday (Feb. 27) and Northern Colorado (Saturday (Feb. 29) in rematches of games that went into overtime in late January in Cheney. Eastern edged Southern Utah 81-78 in overtime on Jan. 25 before prevailing 89-84 two days later versus Northern Colorado in another game that needed an extra period.
 
* Now well 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.
 
* The Eagles are 10-2 at home this season, and will return to Reese Court to close the regular season on March 5 versus Idaho State and March 7 against Weber State. Eastern has already equaled the school's fifth-highest win total in 37 seasons as a member of Division I, with the only seasons better than 18 wins coming in 2014-15 (26), 2016-17 (22) and 2017-18 (20) and 1985-86 (20). Eastern has also equaled the sixth-most wins in 33 seasons in the Big Sky, with the record set in 2014-15 with 14 victories. Eastern has recorded 13 and 12 wins, respectively, in the first two seasons with Legans at the helm, with an overall high of 20 wins in his rookie season in 2017-18.
 
 
More Notes . . .
 
* Eastern has won 14 of the last 17 versus Northern Arizona and has a six-game winning streak, leading the all-time series versus NAU 37-36 (12-23 in Flagstaff, 23-12 in Cheney, 2-1 neutral). Eastern has won the last nine meetings in Cheney dating back to a 73-69 loss on Jan. 15, 2010. The Eagles have won three of the last four in Flagstaff, and haven't lost there since March 4, 2017, in a 76-61 loss. The only meeting before Eastern became a member of NCAA Division I was an 84-80 NAU victory on Dec. 20, 1969, in Fresno, Calif. Eastern is 3-1 in the Big Sky Conference Tournament versus NAU, winning 74-52 in the 2016 first round; 71-59 in the 2004 championship game in Cheney; and 58-53 in the 2001 semifinals. Eastern also fell 82-65 in the 2000 semifinals in Missoula.
 
* Eastern has equaled the school's fifth-highest win total in 37 seasons as a member of Division I, with the only seasons better than 18 wins coming in 2014-15 (26), 2016-17 (22) and 2017-18 (20) and 1985-86 (20). Eastern has also equaled the fifth-most wins in 33 seasons in the Big Sky, with the record set in 2014-15 with 14 victories. Eastern has recorded 13 and 12 wins, respectively, in the first two seasons with Legans at the helm, with an overall high of 20 wins in his rookie season in 2017-18.
 
* 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. With a season sweep over EWU, the Grizzlies have a tiebreaker advantage over the Eagles.
 
 
More Comments from Head Coach Shantay Legans . . .
 
On Bench: "We have players we can call on all the time. But that makes it hard because you have only 200 minutes in a game. We have a lot of players coming along and are ready for their moment. It's fun to watch them play and how they are developing and getting better through the year. You can't ask for anything more. It's awesome."
 
On Mason Peatling: "He's a stud and doing everything for us. He's my pick for Big Sky Player of the Year. He's averaging a double-double in league play, and today he had six assists and he's ranked in the top two in the league in blocks. Mason is unbelievable. And he has a chance to be an Academic All-American with a 4.0 grade point average as graduate student. You would be hard-pressed to find a better student-athlete in the country with what Mason is doing right now. It's amazing and fun to watch him play, and eventually it will be fun to see his professional career take off."