LOS ANGELES — The Eastern Washington Eagles (1-6) couldn't contain the Southern California (5-2) offensive attack on Wednesday night in Los Angeles, losing to the high-powered Trojans, 106-78. It was Eastern's sixth road game of the young 2023-24 season — all against Power-5 opponents. Fifth-year senior
Jake Kyman led the Eags with a career-high 25 points.
Kyman found the twine early and often, scoring 10 of Eastern's first 16 as they kept it a 5-point game midway through the first half. The former Wyoming Cowboy and UCLA Bruin finished 9-for-13 shooting (7-10 from 3) for a new career mark, besting the 21 points he scored twice with UCLA during the 2019-20 season. It was his third career game with seven 3-pointers made.
"It was exciting to see Jake play the way he's capable of," said head coach David Riley. "He can really, really shoot it. He's finally getting a little more comfortable in our offense. It's a unique style of offense where we're asking him to be a lot more than just a three-point shooter, so it's taken some time to get used to. I'm really excited with his progression."
Unfortunately, USC's Boogie Ellis matched and exceeded Kyman's hot start, sinking his first five 3-pointers on his way to a team-leading 28 points — 19 of which came in the opening frame. It was Ellis' fourth game scoring 20 or more this season and he finished with 8 made 3's, good for 3rd in USC history.
Powered by a 20-3 run, the Trojans took firm control before the break and never let up, leading by as many as 32 down the stretch. Boasting elite size at every position, they shot 57.1% on the night (36-63), including 50% from beyond the arc (12-24). Eastern shot a respectable 44.4% (38.2% from 3) but was outrebounded 36-28, leading to a 42-26 USC edge in points in the paint.
"I don't think you can look at a score when the other team scores 106 and be proud of very much defensively," Riley continued. "(USC) is a really good team, a well-coached team and we've got to execute better defensively to beat a team like that."
Other highlights for the Eags included redshirt freshman LeJuan Watts with a career-best 16 points and 7 rebounds, and Casey Jones finding double digits scoring (10) for the 6th-straight game. Guard Ellis Magnuson tallied 6 assists to inch closer to 300 in his EWU career. At 298, he just just two away from becoming the 11th player in program history to reach the milestone.
"Our offense is starting to click a little bit better but for us to be the team we want to be, our defense has to improve."
The Eagles get a well-deserved nine days off before they travel once more to take on Air Force in Colorado on Dec. 9. Their next home game is Dec. 13 against Portland Bible College.
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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