The Eastern Washington University men's basketball team completed its fifth-straight game on the road tonight (Feb. 5) at Southern Utah. The Eagles led for 19:01 of the first half, but the Thunderbirds used the second half of play to pull away and win 84-72.
 
EWU has now lost four-straight, dropping to 11-12 overall and 5-7 in Big Sky Conference play. The Thunderbirds on the other hand, win their fourth-straight and improve to 15-6 and 9-2. Southern Utah, who will move to the Western Athletic Conference in July, won its third-straight over the Eagles and sweep the season meetings.
 
Eastern Washington led for 19:01 of the first half and led by as many as 13-points. In the first 20 minutes, the Eagles shot 14-for-26 (53.8%) from the field with six three-pointers. Southern Utah was held to 42.9 percent (12-28). The Eagles led by a point at the half, but the Thunderbirds outscored EWU 48-35 in the second half while shooting 60.7 percent from the field and holding Eastern Washington to 48.3 percent.
 
Steele Venters led the team with 19 points after making four three-pointers. Ethan Price (14 points, 6 assists), Rylan Bergersen (11 points) and Linton Acliese III (11 points) also scored in double figures.

"Consistency. That's something that we talked about a lot in the locker room. For us to go on runs, and then have it the opposite way where the other team goes on runs it shows our lack of consistency and focus on the next play. If the eight players we play each have two or three 'my bad' moments, that's 16-to-20 'my bad' moments and that will lose you the game, so we have to build that," said head coach David Riley.
 
Eastern Washington came out red-hot, opening the game on an 8-0 run. On the other hand, Southern Utah didn't find the scoreboard until the 17:17 mark and did not make a field goal until 15:15 left to play in the first half. Meanwhile, the Eagles made 6-of-8 (75%) to start the contest and forced three early turnovers. By the 16:54 mark, Eastern Washington led 14-2 following another 6-0 run.
 
The Eagles held their largest lead of 13 points at 17-4 before cooling down. The Thunderbirds went on a 10-0 run to whittle the lead the down to three points, 17-14. Ethan Price's second triple of the game put a stop to the run, putting EWU back up by six points.
 
Down the stretch, the Thunderbirds used an 18-6 run in all to cut EWU's advantage to 23-22. The Eagles continued to hang on, as a pair of 5-0 runs gave Eastern Washington a 32-27 lead with 3:45 remaining in the half. Southern Utah cut the lead down to two-points twice more before finally taking their first lead of the game with 1:30 remaining, 36-35. With 42 seconds on the clock, Rylan Bergersen made a layup to make it a 37-36 game and that's where the score sat at the half.
 
Southern Utah used an 8-0 run early in the second half to lead 46-40 before extending the advantage to 50-43. Every time the Eagles tried to get within distance, the Thunderbirds would answer and eventually held their largest lead of eight points, 58-50 midway through the half.
 
The Thunderbirds continued to pull ahead, leading 66-55 with 8:01 left to play. Eastern Washington was able to string-together six-straight points to trim their deficit to 66-61 and Venters' fourth three-pointer made it a four-point game once again at 70-66.
 
With three minutes left, an SUU three-point put the Thunderbirds ahead 73-66.
Eastern Washington got as close as five points in the final minutes before falling 84-72.
 
TOP PERFORMANCES: Steele Venters led the way with 19 points after making four three-pointers and shooting 7-of-12 from the field. He added three rebounds, two assists and a steal.
 
Ethan Price added 14 points, making 6-of-10 field goal attempts and drained two triples. He also tallied six assists, two blocks and two rebounds. Rylan Bergersen scored 11 points, shooting nearly 50 percent (5-11) from the field to go with four rebounds, three assists, a block and a steal.
 
Linton Acliese III went 5-of-8 from the field for 11 points, his 11^th-straight game in double figures. He finished with three rebounds and an assist as well.
 
Angelo Allegri finished with nine points, six rebounds and two assists. Casey Jones scored a career-high eight points, making two three-pointers.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: For the second-straight game, Eastern Washington shot over 50 percent from the field but lost. Tonight, EWU was 28-for-55 from the field (50.9%), 10-for-27 (37%) from three-point range, and 6-of-9 (66.7%) from the free throw line.
 
Southern Utah shot 51.8 percent from the field (29-56), 47.6 percent from behind the arc (10-21) and were 16-for-21 (76.2%) from the charity stripe.
 
The Thunderbirds held a slight 29-to-28 edge in the rebounding column, but committed 11 turnovers to Eastern's 15. In the paint, Eastern was out-scored 34-to-26.
 
UP NEXT: Eastern Washington finally returns home on Thursday, Feb. 10 to host Weber State at Reese Court at 6 p.m. before taking on Idaho State at home on Saturday, Feb. 12 at 2 p.m.
 
Tickets are available at GoEags.com/tickets. Proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test within the last 72 hours for fans ages 11 or older is required for entry to home games. Masks must be worn for fans ages five years old or older at all times. Eastern Washington would also like to remind fans that concession stands are now back open, this includes hospitality areas such as the Eagle Club and the Sixth Man Club.