CHENEY, Wash. — A month begins and Eastern Washington Athletics's seasons are in full swing. Women's basketball begins a four-game homestand, while the men are on the road in Montana this weekend before heading to Portland. Track and Field continues its strong start to the season with a competition in Spokane. Men's and women's tennis each have two road matches Friday and Saturday.
Women's Basketball (16-4, 6-1 Big Sky) — vs. Montana State (Thursday, Feb. 1 at 6 p.m.), vs. Montana (Saturday, Feb. 3 at 2 p.m.), vs. Portland State (Monday, Feb. 5 at 6 p.m.) — Get Tickets
Eastern Washington prepares for a three-game in six days schedule, starting with a visit from the Montana teams this week. The Eagles start with Montana State on Thursday night and then host Montana on Saturday afternoon.
EWU split games last week, seeing their 10-game winning streak come to end this past Saturday (Jan. 27). In the first game of the week, the Eagles defeated Northern Colorado in Greeley, 68-62 to get to 10 wins in a row. Three players scored in double figures, led by
Jaleesa Lawrence's 17 points, while
Bella Hays led the effort inside with eight rebounds. In a matchup against the No. 2 in the Big Sky,
Eastern fell to Northern Arizona, 89-81, in overtime. The Eagles trailed by as much as 15 in the game, but stormed back to tie the game in regulation and forced the extra quarter. NAU locked-down in overtime and earned the top-ranked matchup.
Aaliyah Alexander scored a career-high 31 points, while
Jamie Loera posted a double-double - 20 points and 11 rebounds.
Eastern remains one of the top defenses in the conference, allowing 57.2 points per game and a 37.1 shooting percentage. EWU is third among conference teams with a 72.3 points per game average.
Alexander carries the second-highest scoring average in the BIg Sky with 16.1 points per game, while shooting 46.1 percent to rank fourth. Loera is second in the conference with 5.6 assists per game and is third with a 2.1 assist-to-turnover ratio. The graduate student leads all players with 2.4 steals per game.
Men's Basketball (11-7, 5-0 Big Sky) — at Montana State (Thursday, Feb. 1 at 7 p.m. MT), at Montana (Saturday, Feb. 3 at 7 p.m. MT), at Portland State (Monday, Feb. 5 at 7 p.m.)
The Eags enter the week still undefeated in conference play at 7-0 after a perfect January capped by wins over Northern Colorado and
Northern Arizona at home last week. Their nine-game win streak is the 5th-longest in the country.
Eastern held on in a tight one over the Bears on Thursday despite uncharacteristic shooting and playing without starter Cedric Coward for most of the first half due to foul trouble. Dane Erikstrup (16) and LeJuan Watts (12) continued their strong case for conference Sixth Man of the Year honors as Eastern had 5 players in double figures. The Eags shot just 23.1% from beyond the 3-point arc, their lowest percentage against a Big Sky opponent this year.
They responded with a dominant first half against NAU on Saturday, building a 19-point lead at the break and never letting the Jacks closer than 9 points down the stretch. Ethan Price led with 20 points, Cedric Coward added 15 and three others had 10+ as EWU dominated the glass, outrebounding NAU 41-23 while gathering 14 of 28 available offensive boards. Eastern has now won 14 of 15 against NAU as they avenged last year's buzzer beater Big Sky Tournament loss.
Ahead is a busy week with back-to-back-to-back road games on Thursday, Saturday and Monday. They'll close out the first half of the conference slate at the Montana schools before flipping to rematches as they take on Portland State in the Rose City on Monday. The Eagles split against Montana State (10-11, 5-3 Big Sky) last year before the Bobcats won the conference tournament to advance to March Madness. Eastern swept the Montana Grizzlies (14-7, 5-3) a year ago but they hold an impressive 8-2 record at home this season, with one of the two losses coming in overtime.
On Monday, Eastern will look to repeat the performance from their first conference game of the year, when they cruised to a 91-57 win over Portland State in Cheney. The Vikings (13-8, 4-4) have cooled from their red-hot start to the season but are still a dangerous group as proven by their back-to-back wins over Montana and Montana State last weekend.
Watch each game on ESPN+.
Track and Field — Riverfront Invitational and Multis, hosted by Spokane Sports at The Podium powered by STCU (Feb. 1-3)
Eagle Track & Field returns to The Podium on Thursday for the Riverfront Invitational and Multis Meet hosted by Spokane Sports. After a challenging first road meet at Idaho, Eastern responded strongly in Seattle last weekend, setting several EWU All-Time Top 10 Indoor marks and moving up the conference leaderboards for the season. The Eagle distance runners and pole vaulters did especially well.
They return to familiar confines in Spokane as this will be the team's fourth time competing at the Podium this season. Multi events (men's heptathlon, women's pentathlon) will start on Thursday afternoon before the remainder of the meet starts on Friday. See the full meet schedule here.
Men's Tennis — at Montana (Friday, Feb. 2 at 10 a.m. MT), vs. Grand Canyon (Saturday, Feb. 3 at 11 a.m. MT)
After a week off, the Eagles will be back on the court this weekend, traveling to Missoula for two matches. The team starts with a non-counter match against Montana on Friday morning. The match will not count towards the Big Sky record. Staying in Missoula, EWU will play Grand Canyon in a neutral matchup on Saturday morning.
The 2024 spring schedule started two weeks ago for Eastern as they traveled to play Gonzaga. The 'Zags won the match 6-1, as Eagle newcomer
Arshjot Bhatti won a point in singles at the No. 5 position. Bhatti defeated Tom Dunlop in three sets (3–6, 6-4, 10-7).
Caden Kammerer and
Tyler Dalos were paired up in doubles at the No. 1 spot, winning 6-3 over Matthew Hollingsworth and Sasha Trkulja.
Women's Tennis — at Oregon (Friday, Feb. 2 at 12 p.m. PT), vs. Saint Mary's (Saturday, Feb. 3 at 11 a.m.)
Eastern gets back to its spring schedule this week with two matches in Eugene, Ore. It will be the team's third-straight match against a Pac-12 opponent. The Eagles face Oregon on Friday at noon and then Saint Mary's on Saturday morning.
EWU is 0-2 to start the season, playing its most recent match two weeks ago against Washington State in Pullman. The Eagles dropped the road match to the Cougars, 0-7, earning a match win in doubles.
Jennifer Kida and
Anait Arutiunian, playing at the No. 2 spot, knocked off the Cougs' Yura Nakagawa and Fifa Kumhorn, 6-2.
Scout Mathews nearly had a win at the No. 2 singles against Nakagawa, falling in three sets (5-7, 6-1, 6-7 (1)).
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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