CHENEY, Wash. — Behind another outstanding performance from their bench, the Eastern Washington University Eagles (20-7; 14-0 Big Sky) led wire-to-wire on Thursday night in Cheney, beating the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks (7-21; 3-12), 72-55 to earn their 20th win of the season and extend their NCAA DIvision I-leading win streak to 16 games.

Led by Deon Stroud's 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting, the Eagle reserves put up 27 in total. Cedric Coward had 4, Dane Erikstrup had 6 and Ellis Magnuson had 5.

"We all can shoot. We have a lot of players that can put the ball in the rim," said Stroud. "We just trust each other to move the ball and take the shot when it's open."

Move the ball they did, piling up 18 assists on 28 made baskets, including 6 from Coward. The Eagles lead the Big Sky Conference in assists per game, averaging 15.2. They also outrebounded the Lumberjacks on Thursday, 40-23.

"Our offense is a kind of 'pick your poison' kind of deal and our guys did a really good job of reading (the defense)," said head coach David Riley.

EWU jumped out to a 19-6 lead early in the first half primarily by finding mismatches down low, scoring 18 in the paint over the first 20 minutes. Stroud hit the team's first 3-pointer over 11 minutes into play.

Deon Stroud scores a three-pointer!#GoEags pic.twitter.com/FfnsAyI3tu

— EWU Men's Basketball 🏀 (@EWUMBB) February 17, 2023

Back-to-back baskets from Magnuson and a 3 by Angelo Allegri made it 34-16 before a late push by the Lumberjacks cut the advantage to 34-22 headed into halftime.

In the second half, turnovers by Eastern sparked a 14-8 run by NAU, pushing the visitors to within 4 points with 13:45 left to play. That is as close as they'd get. Coward, Tyreese Davis and Dane Erikstrup converted on three more shots from inside to push the lead back to 10 and the Eagles never looked back.

Forward Casey Jones scored 7 of his 12 in the second half, Allegri put in 8 of his team-leading 15 and sharpshooter Steele Venters added 7 after uncharacteristically being held scoreless in the first. The NAU defense focused on taking away Venters, which led to opportunities elsewhere.

"Next man up is the mentality we've been running with all season and it's been working," added Stroud. "I think that's the best asset of our team."

The win improves Eastern's record to 20-7, marking the fifth time the program has reached the 20-win milestone since joining DIvision I. They are also now 14-0 in conference, one win away from tying the 1968-69 Weber State squad for the best start in Big Sky history (15-0). A win on Saturday would guarantee the Eagles a share of the Big Sky Regular Season Championship, a feat EWU has accomplished three times, in 2019-20, 2014-15* and 2003-04.

That clinching opportunity will come on Saturday afternoon as Eastern hosts the Northern Colorado Bears at Reese Court at 2 p.m.

*Eastern shared the title with Montana in 2014-15 but lost the regular season tiebreaker for conference tournament seeding.
 

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