The Eastern Washington University men's basketball team played host to the visiting Multnomah Lions tonight (Dec. 15) at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash., where they walked away with an emphatic 95-56 win.
 
The game was the final one at home for the Eagles in 2021, who now improve to 6-5 overall (0-1 Big Sky). The contest was a non-counter exhibition for the NAIA member Multnomah, who remain at 6-5 overall and 2-1 in Cascade Collegiate Conference play.
 
Four Eagles scored in double figures, led by Angelo Allegri who had the first 20-plus point performance of his career with 23 points in 24 minutes. Mason Landdeck (15), Ethan Price (12) and Linton Acliese III (10) also scored in double figures. Eastern Washington finished with a school-record 68 rebounds in the win, besting the 67 against Multnomah back on Dec. 13, 2019.
 
"It's good to get players out there in games like tonight and build trust in their game, to get them minutes and get them comfortable coming out. There's going to be times where someone may go down or be in foul trouble, and we have to be ready for the next man up," said head coach David Riley. "We now have to have our best four or five practices of the year coming up. We have a big game on Wednesday. We've had a chance to evaluate over the past 11 games and we know who we are."
 
Eastern Washington used a 7-0 run to take an early 7-2 lead. The Lions were able to take a brief 10-9 lead before the game moved into a 15-15 tie. After the Eagles used a 6-0 spurt to pull ahead 21-15, Multnomah kept hanging around and cut EWU's lead to just a point, 26-25. That's when the Eagles found their groove, pulling back ahead 35-25 on a 9-0 run. The Lions made a pair of free throws, but Eastern Washington used a 13-2 run for a 48-29 advantage. At the half, Eastern held a comfortable 50-33 advantage.
 
Both Angelo Allegri (15 points) and Mason Landdeck (11 points) reached double digits in the first half, with EWU shooting 41.9 percent (31-31) from the field. Multnomah shot 42.5 percent (17-40).
 
Eastern Washington picked up where it left off, using a 10-0 run to open second half play with a 62-35 lead. By the 15-minute mark, the Eagles had outscored the Lions 17-2 for a 67-35 advantage thanks to another 7-0 run. The lead stretched to as many as 33, 81-48 with six minutes left to play after the Eagles went off for another 8-0 scoring spurt and held the Lions scoreless for 3:46. Eastern Washington shut the door on Multnomah, closing the contest on a 12-3 run en route to the 95-56 win.
 
TOP PERFORMANCES: After scoring an EWU career-high in the last game at North Dakota, Angelo Allegri set a new career-high with 23 points, his first 20-plus performance of his career. He was 8-of-16 from the field with six three-pointers, while adding seven rebounds and two assists in 24 minutes of action.
 
Mason Landdeck was 6-of-6 from the free throw line and 4-of-9 from the field for 15 points. He also led the way with six assists and three steals, plus added five rebounds.
 
Ethan Price nearly had a double-double with nine rebounds and 12 points. He also had three steals.
 
Linton Acliese III added 10 points in his second game since returning from injury. He was 4-of-7 from the field with five rebounds, two assists and a steal.
 
Casey Jones had eight rebounds, Ellis Magnuson added five assists and five rebounds, and Yousef Elkugia had seven rebounds.
 
KEY STATISTICS: Eastern Washington set a school record 68 rebounds in the win, outrebounding the Lions 68-to-28. The Lions were 22-of-68 (32.4%) from the field, 7-of-37 from three-point range and 5-of-7 from the free throw line.
 
The Eagles also took a lot of three-point attempts, finishing 9-of-39 (23.1). Overall, EWU shot 41 percent (34-83) and made 18-of-25 free throw attempts.
 
Twenty-four of Eastern's 34 field goals were assisted. They forced 17 Lion turnovers and turned them in to 15 points. In the paint, the Eagles outscored MU 48-to-28 and had 22 second chance points. Twelve Eastern players saw the court, and the bench added 27 points.
 
UP NEXT: Eastern Washington closes non-conference play in Lubbock, Texas, next week (Dec. 22) at Texas Tech. Tip-off is set for 11 a.m. Pacific time.