CHENEY, Wash. — The competition is picking up Eastern Washington Athletics, with five teams in action this week. Both the men's and women's basketball teams are in the middle of winning streak and look to continue to stay hot in conference play. Men's tennis begins its spring schedule on the road, while the women's travel for its second match. Track and Field has a short road trip down to Moscow to continue the momentum built in Spokane this past week.
Women's Basketball (13-3, 3-0 Big Sky) — vs. Weber State (Thursday, 11 a.m. Pacific Time), vs. Idaho State (Saturday, 2 p.m.) - Get Tickets
Eastern Washington gets to spend a whole week at home after playing six of its last seven games. Thursday's game against Weber State will be Kids day with local elementary and middle school students in attendance. Saturday is the Eagles' Alumni and Family game.
EWU traveled south last week for one game against Idaho, defeating the Vandals 67-44.
Aaliyah Alexander matched her career-high with 27 points on 11-of-16(68.8%) shooting and 3-of-3 from three-point range. The defense was key for Eastern, holding Idaho to 30.6 shooting from the floor. With the win, the Eagles matched a program record with seven-straight wins.
This season, the Eagles are allowing 56.8 points per game, ranking second in the Big Sky. Their plus-16.6 scoring margin is the top mark in the conference, as the team averages 73.3 points per game (3rd). Eastern has a plus-6.0 turnover margin that leads the Big Sky. Eastern is slated at 65th in the NET rankings, moving up one spot from this past weekend.
Leading the scoring is Alexander, who averages 16.4 points per game, second in the conference. She is shooting 49.2 percent from the floor to rank third and has an 83.9 free throw percentage thanks ranks second. In three Big Sky games, Alexander is averaging 23.7 points per game, the top scoring average in the conference.
Everything the Eagles do runs through Jamie Loera, as the graduate student averages 5.7 assists per game, tied for first on the conference leaderboard. Her plus 2.0 assist-to-turnover margin is third in the Big Sky. Loera averages 2.5 steals per game to lead the conference, grabbing 38 total this season. The Moses Lake, Wash. native also averages 11.1 points per game (T11th) and 4.9 rebounds per game (T20th), ranking among the top figures in the conference.
Men's Basketball (8-7, 2-0 Big Sky) — at Weber State (Thursday, 6 p.m. PT), at Idaho State (Saturday, 5 p.m. PT)
The Eags stand alone as the only undefeated team in conference play through two weekends, improving to 3-0 with a dominant 21-point win at Idaho last Saturday. Four different Eagles scored in double figures but it was the defense than stole the show. EWU piled up 9 blocked shots — including a career-best 4 from
Cedric Coward — and 7 team steals, locking UI down to just 28.1% shooting on the night (16-57) and 8-29 (27.6%) from beyond the arc. It was the lowest shooting percentage allowed by EWU against a D-I opponent this season.
On Thursday, they head to Weber State to face the preseason favorite Wildcats headlined by unanimous preseason MVP and multiple-time Big Sky Player of the Week Dillon Jones, who ranks 4th in the country with 10 double-doubles already this season. The Wildcats are 11-6 overall and 2-2 in conference play after back-to-back one possession losses at Portland State and Sacramento State last weekend. They are the only Big Sky team ranked ahead of the Eagles in NCAA NET and KenPom rankings, landing at 111th to EWU's 116th/121st.
On Saturday, Eastern returns to Pocatello for the first time since the Idaho State Bengals broke their 18-game winning streak last season. The Bengals enter the week 6-11 overall this year and 1-3 in conference, splitting last weekend's games at Portland State (W, 69-63) and at Sacramento State (L, 64-66). EWU has won 4 of the last 5 and 10 of the last 13 against ISU, who sits at 267th in the NCAA NET rankings through Monday's games.
Both games will be available streaming via ESPN+.
Men's Tennis (0-0, 0-0 Big Sky) — at Oregon (Friday, 10 a.m. PT), at Gonzaga (Sunday, 2 p.m.)
Eastern begins its 2024 spring schedule this week with a road trip to play the Oregon Ducks on Friday morning and Gonzaga on Sunday afternoon. The Eagles were 4-13 last season, with an 0-7 record in conference. The team returns five players, including Tyler Dalos, Drew Dillon, Caden Kammerer, Erik Sarlvik and Brady Thomas. EWU adds two newcomers in Arshjot Bhatti and Tyler Waddock. Head coach Jared Burnham begins his fifth season leading the team.
Upcoming this season, Eastern will have four home matches, starting on March 2 against Montana State. The team will play its first eight matches on the road or at neutral sites.
Women's Tennis (0-1, 0-0 Big Sky) — at Washington State (Saturday, 1 p.m. PT)
The Eagles have a short road trip this week as they face Washington State on Saturday in Pullman. Eastern faced No. 24 Washington this past week to open its 2024 spring schedule. The Eagles fell 7-0 to the Huskies in their match on Saturday, Jan. 13.
Jennifer Kida and
Sara Vasic battled tough at the No. 3 doubles, but fell 4-2 to Melissa Sakar and Dariya Detkovskaya. Redshirt-freshman
Anait Arutiunian nearly pulled off a win at the No. 3 singles spot, falling 7-6(3), 7-5 to the Huskies Astrid Olsen.
Track and Field — Lauren McCluskey Memorial (Friday and Saturday, all day)
Eastern looks to build off a handful of strong individual performances at the Podium last weekend — including school record-setting marks from Madi Knight in the women's 60m hurdles and
Zach Klobutcher in the men's pole vault — with their first true "road" meet of the season, in Moscow, Idaho on Friday and Saturday.
Competition will begin with multi events on Friday morning before the remainder of the events start on Friday afternoon. Click here for a tentative schedule. The Eagles competed at the Kibbie Dome twice last season, at the McCluskey Memorial and at the 2023 Big Sky Indoor Championships, where they earned six medals, including three gold.
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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