MISSOULA, Mont. — Eastern Washington (14-8, 8-1 Big Sky) bounced back from their first conference loss of the season with a hard-fought 78-65 win at Montana (15-8, 6-4) on Saturday night. Guard
Jake Kyman led the offense with 21 points and the Eagle defense held the Grizzlies to 34.4% shooting, earning a split in their two conference road games in the state.
"The big thing is that champions respond," said head coach David Riley. "The season isn't to be defined by that Montana State loss, it's going to be defined by how we respond to it and I thought our guys did an incredible job."
The first half was back-and-forth as Montana jumped out to an early 9-3 lead before Eastern fought back to tie it five minutes in. The Griz punched out another four-point lead with 4:33 left in the first, but again the Eagles responded, scoring 13 of the final 19 points in the half to lead 33-30 at the break.
The defining stretch came early in the second as Eastern held Montana without a point for over three minutes while scoring 11 of their own — 7 by Kyman — to earn a 51-42 advantage with 15 left in regulation. The Griz never got closer than 6 the rest of the way as the Eagles exploited mismatches to force the ball inside. They scored 28 points in the paint and 27 from the charity stripe, six more than their previous high of 21. Casey Jones scored 12 of his 16 from the line.
"It was all in the paint," Riley continued. "Someone (Ethan Price) hit an early three then we were living in the paint. We had some good inside-out action. Guys were playing super unselfish. It was cool to see our guys take all the lessons from Montana State and bring it into this one."
After allowing 14 offensive rebounds in their loss on Thursday, the Eagles controlled the glass against the Griz, outrebounding them 43-33 overall. Montana shot 22-for-64 from the field and just 7-for-30 (23.3%) beyond the arc, the third straight game in which EWU opponents have shot under 30% from 3. Montana's trio of starting guards — Josh Vasquez, Aanen Moody and Brandon Whitney — finished a combined 11-for-28 including 6-for-17 from outside.
"It was an incredible individual effort from all of our guys. When we're switching ball screens, everyone had to guard their guards… We talk about our identity being on the defensive end so that's where we had to respond and our guys did that."
Kyman scored 13 of his 21 points in the second half, finishing 6-for-9 overall, 3-for-4 from 3 and 6-for-6 from the line. Cedric Coward quietly picked up his fourth double-double of the year with 16 points and 10 rebounds, adding 2 blocks and a steal.
The Eags managed the ball much better on Saturday, giving it away just 12 times including an intentional shot clock violation in the closing seconds. They recorded 18 turnovers in each of their previous two games. Veteran guard Ellis Magnuson was perfect, dishing 7 assists to 0 turnovers to move into sole possession of 5th in program history in career assists with 362. EWU had 15 assists on 23 made baskets on Saturday.
With Northern Colorado's loss to Weber State, Eastern's hold on first place in the Big Sky Conference extends back to two games. They close out their toughest in-conference road trip of the season with their third game in five nights on Monday at Portland State. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. with the game available streaming via ESPN+ or on the radio via 700 ESPN and The Varsity Network.
Eastern's next home game is Saturday, February 10 vs. Idaho. It will be Equality and Inclusion Night at Reese Court in Cheney, with a doubleheader as the Eastern women will play at 2 p.m. followed by the men at 4:30 p.m. Tickets for that game 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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