RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The Eastern Washington Eagles battled hard but ultimately fell to Cal Baptist, 79-68, in a second-half showdown.
"As I told them today, our record is 0-0, we will worry about wins and losses once we get to conference play," said head coach
Dan Monson. "These teams are exposing our weakness and give us the opportunity before we get into conference play to fix them and get better."
The Eagles were led by
Nic McClain, who scored 24 points while grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out six assists.
Sebastian Hartmann added 13 points and seven rebounds, and
Andrew Cook contributed 12 points.
"I keep talking about the process, but at the end of the day we're still not good enough defensively. There were some silver linings today. I though we defended the three better today, and though we rebounded better."
First Half:
The opening half featured a brief three-minute scoring drought for the Eagles, but strong play from McClain and Hartmann helped keep the game within reach.
Hartmann got Eastern off to a solid start with a three-pointer from the left wing. The Eagles briefly took a five-point lead, but the Lancers responded with an 18-2 run, pushing their advantage to 16 points.
McClain ignited a quick comeback, first scoring a driving layup, then stealing the ball and converting another basket—all in a span of 30 seconds. Hartmann followed with back-to-back three-pointers to cut the deficit back to nine.
The final two minutes of the half were marked by tight defense, with both teams combining for just six points—four of them coming from Eastern. The Eagles closed the half strong, hitting six of their final seven field-goal attempts to head into halftime trailing by just nine points.
Second Half:
Eastern picked up where they left off in the second half, quickly converting a layup off a Lancer turnover. However, Cal Baptist responded with a 7-0 run to extend their lead back to double digits. A deep three-pointer from McClain brought the Eagles back within 11, but the Lancers answered right back with a quick bucket.
Cal Baptist maintained their defensive pressure, forcing turnovers and capitalizing on Eastern's mistakes. The Lancers eventually built their largest lead of the game at 17 points.
Despite the deficit, the Eagles fought back, with
Andrew Cook coming through at the free-throw line to close the gap to single digits for the first time since the start of the half. However, Cal Baptist tightened their defense, limiting McClain's opportunities and extending their lead back to 17 points with just 3:39 remaining.
The Eagles continued to fight until the final buzzer but ultimately fell 79-68 to the Lancers in a hard-fought contest.
Up Next
The Eagles will continue their road trip with a matchup against UC Santa Barbara on Tuesday, Nov. 26, at 7 p.m. (PST), before wrapping up the road trip with a game against Utah in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Nov. 30, at 2 p.m. (PST).
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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