STANFORD, Calif. — A hot start wasn't enough for Eastern Washington (0-4) at Stanford (3-1) on Friday night as they lost, 95-70 at Maples Pavilion. Forward
Ethan Price led the Eagles with a season-high 19 points as the team played their fourth-straight road game to start the season, all at Power Five conference opponents.
"I think when you look at our team, we've had stretches where we've done everything that we need to win a championship, but we just haven't put it all together at the same time," said head coach David Riley after the game.
Eastern bolted out to an early 12-point lead in the first half, scoring 16 of the game's first 20 points and making 6 of their first 9 shots from beyond the arc. Punctuated by a three from Preseason All-Big Sky selection Price, the Eagles held a 26-14 advantage with 9:05 left in the opening frame.
From there, the Cardinal found their groove.
Stanford responded in force, shooting the lights out to earn a 17-0 run over the next 3:49, claiming a lead they never relinquished. They led 31-26 before Price stopped the bleeding with one of his 4 threes on the day to make it 31-29 Cardinal.
"We shot the ball well in today's game," continued Riley, when asked about the team's tough schedule to start the season. "We didn't turn the ball over at Cincinnati, we rebounded well against Ole Miss. There are so many games (where) we can take that one part. Now we've got to put it all together, and that's what it's all about."
Led by 12 in the half from Andrej Stojaković, son of NBA legend Peja Stojaković, Stanford pulled away for a 47-35 edge at the break despite Eastern shooting 8-for-14 from 3-point range. Stojaković finished with 18 on the night.
Facing a double-digit deficit in the final 20 minutes, the Eagles couldn't maintain their scorching start from deep, shooting a respectable 5-for-15 in the second half to finish 13-for-29 (44.8%) on the night, marking their best performance from range so far in the young 2023-24 campaign.
Stanford pushed out to a 22-point lead with 10 minutes left and held it there down the stretch.
"You can't fix it all at once," added Riley. "(But) at the end of the day, we gave up 95 points, and we've got to figure that out. We can't be giving up these big numbers… We haven't figured it all out basketball wise, but we've got to learn these lessons against good teams like Stanford."
Beyond Price's 19 points, Coward scored 14 for his third-straight game with 10 or more. Casey Jones and redshirt freshman LeJuan Watts each chipped in 10 of their own. Eastern actually shot the ball better from 3-point range than they did overall, finishing 23/55 (42%) from the floor. They were outrebounded, 38-29, and lost the turnover battle 16-12.
Eastern gets a chance to play in familiar territory next Wednesday as they'll host Walla Walla University at Reese Court in Cheney for the first of only three home non-conference games this season. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Season tickets for EWU men's and women's basketball are now available and start as low as $100! Tickets for basketball and all EWU Athletics events are available at goeags.com/tickets or via the EWU Athletics Ticket Office at 509-359-6059.
ABOUT EASTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS
Eastern Washington University Athletics sponsors 14 intercollegiate sports, six for men and eight for women, both as learning opportunities for its most athletically talented students and as an enhancement to student and community life. Eastern is affiliated with Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and is a member of the Big Sky Conference, an association of 10 regional schools with comparable enrollments and academic goals.
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