The Eastern Washington University men's basketball team picked up its third road win of the season this morning (Dec. 4) against Omaha at Baxter Arena in Omaha, Neb. Rylan Bergersen scored a career-high 32 points, helped guide the Eagles to a 92-81 decision to improve to 4-4 on the season.
 
Bergersen's career-high comes less than 48 hours after he scored a season-high 15 in a loss against Southern Utah at home. This morning, the senior was 10-of-13 from the field and 11-of-15 from the free throw line.
 
Not to be overlooked was Steele Venters who scored 21 points for his second-straight 20-plus output and the fourth of the season. Angelo Allegri added 12 points as well. As a team, the Eagles had a season-low 11 turnovers, out-rebounded the Mavericks 38-27, and shot 53.7 percent from the field with 10 three-pointers.
 
"The defense in the second half was better and the offense the whole game was a step in the right direction. I'm really proud of our team for taking care of the ball better this game and it's great to get a road win," said head coach David Riley. "Rylan Bergersen is so good. He's versatile – we played through to him in the post in the first half and in the perimeter as a passer in the second half and he came off of ball screens throughout the game. He's a tough matchup for anyone that gets to the line, he's super physical and plays like a football player sometimes. A great game by Rylan."
 
The first half alone saw seven ties and five lead changes. Both teams shot the ball well, with Eastern making 18-of-31 from the field (58.1%) and 8-of-16 from three-point range (50%). Omaha shot 51.9 percent overall and 50 percent from three-point range, and were also 13-of-14 from the free throw line.
 
Venters was 4-of-4 from three-point range to start the contest, helping give the Eagles a 23-15 lead for the largest advantage of the first half. After UNO went on a 7-0 run to make it a one-point game, 23-22, the teams would go basket-for-basket to move the game into a 37-37 tie. Bergersen used a mini 4-0 run of his own to break the tie, 38-37, only for the game to knot once again at an even 43-43. A three-pointer by Ellis Magnuson followed by another layup from Bergersen gave EWU a 48-43 advantage, and Eastern led 48-46 at the half.
 
Neither side could breakaway or lead by more than three points as the game was locked 61-61 with 10:31 to play.
 
EWU trailed 64-63 when they found some momentum with a 9-0 run for its largest lead of the half, 72-64, and they never looked back with 6:58 left to play. A three-pointer by Bergersen with 2:42 remaining in the contest gave Eastern a comfortable 80-70 lead. With less than a minute to play, the Mavericks would get as close as six points, but Eastern ended the game on a 6-1 run to seal the 92-81 road win.
 
Eastern Washington is now 2-0 all-time against Omaha, as the Mavericks fall to 1-7 on the season.
 
TOP PERFORMANCES: Rylan Bergersen led all players with a career-high 32 points. He was 10-of-13 from the field and 11-of-15 from the free throw line. The senior added six rebounds, three assists and a steal.
 
Steele Venters scored over 20 points for the second-straight game and fourth time this season, adding 21 points. He was 6-of-12 from the field, 5-of-6 from three-point range, and 4-of-4 from the free throw line. He led the team with a career-high eight rebounds and also added three assists and two steals.
 
Angelo Allegri also scored in double figures with 12 points after shooting 50 percent from the field. He added four rebounds and three steals.
 
Both Mason Landdeck and Casey Jones added seven points, while Landdeck led the team with four steals. Ethan Price had the team's lone block.
 
KEY STATISTICS: Eastern Washington was 29-of-54 from the field to shoot 53.7 percent on the day. The Eagles made 10 of their 23 three-point attempts (43.5%) and were 24-for-32 (75%) from the charity stripe.
 
The Mavericks were 24-of-51 from the field (47.1%), 8-of-20 from three-point range (40%) and 25-for-30 from the free throw line (83.3%).
 
Eastern Washington won the rebounding battle, 32 to 27, and outscored the Mavericks 34 to 24 in the paint. The Eagles committed a season-low 11 turnovers and forced 14 that they turned in to 17 points. Seventeen of Eastern's 29 field goal attempts were assisted.
 
UP NEXT: Eastern Washington will look for its second-straight victory over a Pac-12 opponent on Wednesday, Dec. 8, when it plays at Colorado. Tip-off is set for 5 p.m. Pacific time from Boulder, Colo.
 
MORE COMMENTS FROM HEAD COACH DAVID RILEY:
 
On Steele Venters' Three-Point Shooting: "Steele is Mr. Consistent. He shows up every day, and you better not give him room from three-point range, he can knock those down. He has become a threat overall; he can get to the rim and made some good passes. It was a fun game for the team offensively."
 
On Getting Back into the Game After Falling Behind Early: "When Ethan Price got into foul trouble, we lost some rim protection and we weren't great about swarming the ball. When we're small, we have to make that adjustment and we haven't quite figured that out yet. I know we will and it will be great to have Linton Acliese III back soon to shore some things up at the rim for us. It was great to show resilience in the second half, because when Ethan was out in the second half we did a better job."
 
On a Season-Low 11 Turnovers and Rebounding: "Those were two things that hurt us against Southern Utah. We got killed on the boards in the first half and we had some silly turnovers. We have a team with 12 new guys and we are a high-passing team, so there are going to be turnovers until we work out chemistry. We have to keep continuing to get better and better and today was a step in the right direction."