CHENEY, Wash. – Eastern Washington (6-15, 2-6) fought hard but fell short against Northern Colorado (15-6, 7-1) in a closely contested game, losing 67-62.
"I feel for our guys," said head coach
Dan Monson. "We haven't deserved to win a lot of games this year but we deserved to win that one. They guys really took to the game plan and embraced it."
Nic McClain led the Eagles with 16 points, while
Vice Zanki added 11. On the boards,
Mason Williams paced the team with eight rebounds, followed by
Sebastian Hartmann with seven and
Emmett Marquardt with six.
"We have been losing games and that's unacceptable, but today we just got beat. They just played better than us and are more experienced than us. Down the stretch they made a couple plays and we had two turnovers without getting a shot up.
As a team, Eastern outrebounded the Bears 33-28 and shot 47.9% from the field compared to UNC's 40.7%. From beyond the arc, the Eagles shot 36.8%, hitting 7 of 19 attempts.
"Free throws have been a strength of ours all season, but this weekend we had some free throw blues and that didn't help us in either game. Some of the things we did today was very encouraging."
First Half:
The Eagles came out aggressive, with Hartmann opening the scoring with a driving layup, followed by a defensive stop. McClain then hit a deep three to give Eastern its first lead. Zanki joined in with a three of his own, and McClain hit another to force UNC into an early timeout.
The Bears responded with a 7-0 run, but
Andrew Cook stopped the momentum with a driving reverse layup. After a UNC three-pointer, the Bears regained the lead at 18-17 with 7:38 remaining in the half. Zanki answered with another three to pull the Eagles within two points.
Coming out of the final media timeout, Stockton found Zanki for a dunk, putting Eastern back on top. Marquardt followed with a three, and Zanki added a fast-break layup, pushing the lead to 29-24 with 1:08 left in the half. The Eagles led 29-27 at the break.
Second Half:
UNC struck first after halftime, but Hartmann responded with a layup, then hit a corner three to give the Eagles a five-point lead. Williams converted a reverse layup to push the lead back to four.
Cook threw down a dunk off a McClain assist, but the Bears quickly countered with a three to cut into the lead. Northern Colorado continued to chip away, hitting free throws to take the lead with 5:43 left in the game. McClain hit a clutch pull-up jumper to regain the lead for Eastern.
With under three minutes remaining, the game was a back-and-forth affair. UNC regained the lead by one, but Williams hit a three off a second-chance opportunity to put EWU ahead, 59-57, with 2:19 left. However, a few key turnovers allowed UNC to capitalize, and the Bears prevailed 67-62.
Up Next:
The Eagles will hit the road to face Idaho State on Thursday, Jan. 30 at 6 p.m., followed by a matchup with Weber State on Saturday, Feb. 1 at 12:30 p.m.
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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