For the first time since 1997, the Eastern Washington University men's basketball team has defeated Washington State University. The Eagles traveled to Pullman, Wash., tonight (Nov. 27) and came away with a 76-71 victory, snapping a six-match losing streak to the Cougars. The win also ends WSU's 18-game non-conference winning streak and was just the program's third-ever win in Pullman.
 
A pair of true freshmen in Mason Landdeck (24) and Ethan Price (12) led the way in scoring in a back-and-forth game that saw eight lead changes and two ties. The Eagles trailed 40-28 at the half and then out-scored WSU 48-31 in the second en route to the win. Eastern Washington improves to 3-3 on the year and hands Washington State its first loss, dropping to 5-1. The win also serves as redemption from last year's 71-68 season-opening loss in Pullman.
 
"It was a really fun game and what we've been preaching about all year. Our players have bought in to this step-by-step process. We have 12 new guys and we talk about it every day," said head coach David Riley. "They came out and built on what we learned from last week and we've just came so far since the UC Davis game where we were on our heels. Now, we're out there playing hard and competing together. We're sharing the ball and have players stepping up off of the bench. It was a fun, fun, way to go out there and hoop."
 
The Cougars opened the game on a 13-2 run before Eastern Washington responded on a 12-0 spurt of its own to cut the deficit to a point, 14-13. From there, Washington State used runs of 7-0, 11-0, and 9-0 to outscore the Eagles 27-7 for the rest of the half. The Eagles were able to close the half on a 7-0 run and despite shooting 42.31 percent (11-26) from the field and holding Washington State to 30.30 percent (10-33), the Eagles trailed 40-28 heading into the locker room.   
 
Eastern Washington came out of halftime and used a 10-0 run to cut its deficit to 40-38, making it a 17-0 run in all that spanned two halves. After WSU pulled back ahead 47-41, the Eagles were there once more with a 7-0 run to take their first lead since scoring the first two points of the contest.
 
The two teams exchanged leads with the game moving into a 65-65 tie with 2:49 remaining in regulation. From there, the Eagles exploded for seven unanswered points for a 72-65 lead. A 4-0 run from WSU cut the lead to 72-65, but Landdeck would go to the line and make both free throw attempts. The Cougars immediately responded down on their end with a layup, cutting the lead to 74-71 with 10 seconds to go. Landdeck would head to the free throw line again, making both attempts to help seal the 76-71 upset victory.
 
TOP PERFORMANCES: True freshman Mason Landdeck led the way with 24 points, 12 of which came from the free throw line where he was 12-of-14 on the night. From the field, he was 5-of-12, two were from beyond the arc, and also added two rebounds, two assists and two steals.
 
Fellow true freshman Ethan Price followed with 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field to go with two three-pointers.
 
Both Angelo Allegri and Rylan Bergersen added 10 points each, while Bergersen had eight rebounds and Allegri had six. Bergersen also led the team with three assists and three steals.
 
KEY STATISTICS: Eastern Washington shot 50 percent (14-28) from the field in the second half to turn in a performance of 46.3 percent overall (25-54). From three-point range the Eagles were 8-of-22 to go with 18-of-24 from the free throw line.
 
The Eagle defense held the Cougars to 31.1 percent overall (19-61) on the evening. Washington State was 9-of-31 behind the arc and 24-of-28 from the charity stripe.
 
Eastern Washington won the rebounding battle, 38-34, but committed 17 turnovers to WSU's 13. Ten of Eastern's 25 field goals were assisted and they scored 28 points in the paint compared to Washington State's 14.
 
UP NEXT: Eastern Washington returns home for the first time in what will be two and a half weeks when it hosts Southern Utah for the start of Big Sky Conference play. It will be the battle of the defending champions, as Southern Utah claimed last year's regular season title and EWU won the tournament title. The Thunderbirds are picked as this year's preseason favorite. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ or on 700-AM ESPN & 103.5 FM in Cheney. Proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test within the last 72 hours are required for entry.
 
MORE COMMENTS FROM HEAD COACH DAVID RILEY:
 
On this Game Building Culture: "We'll have ups and downs the rest of the year, but we can always go back to this one. We have something that we all believe in, we have a system and have players that are bought in and playing together. This is a great step in the right direction. It's something that the outside world has seen now. We've known every day that we're getting better, we've had some amazing practices this week, last week and the week before that. It's been really, really fun to watch our players get better every day. Whether or not that showed on the court today, we weren't sure if it was going to be a competitive game. Washington State is really good, they're well coached and have some great athletes. They were missing players today but we came in and competed and did what we did."
 
On Mason Landdeck's Play: "He is a tough kid. He's come in and worked and competed every single day. He's a little firecracker and he got us going in the second half. The problem with the first half was the turnovers, that's been our Achilles heel all year. We stepped up and cleaned it up in the second half – just five turnovers in a half, we can live with that, especially with how up tempo we play. It was fun to watch Mason grow today."
 
On Takeaways from Today's Game: "We talked about doing your job pregame and our players understood that. Last week against Texas State, we did our job for 20 minutes and stuck to the scout and were doing what we needed to do, and then we got away from that in the second half. It was clear in the film. Our players are smart kids and they realized that and stuck to it for 40 minutes today."