The where part is a done deal, but the who and when will be determined in the next two weeks for the Eastern Washington University men’s basketball team.
The Eagles play at Idaho Saturday (Feb. 27) at 1:05 p.m. at Memorial Gym as part of an 11-game series in which the top seven teams in the Big Sky Conference standings square off against each other. Those games, which conclude March 5, will be the most important meetings in the final two weeks of the regular season to determine seeding for the Big Sky tournament, which takes place March 8-12 in Reno, Nevada, and includes all 12 league teams.
The top four seeds receive first-round byes. The remaining eight teams play on the first day of the tournament and need to win four games in five days to win the conference title and the NCAA berth that goes with it.
Eastern enters Memorial Gym third in the conference standings at 10-5, 16-11 overall; one game ahead of the Vandals, 9-6, 17-11. In a on Jan. 9 in Cheney, Eastern jumped to an early 16-point lead to beat Idaho 74-60.
Austin McBroom led the Eagles with 26 points and seven assists, with Felix Von Hofe adding 19 points — including five 3-pointers — and Julian Harrell had 14 points in his first game in the starting lineup after missing 13 games with a hand injury.
A guard-oriented team, the Vandals are led in scoring by the 15.7 points per game (11th in the Big Sky) of sophomore Victor Sanders and the 14.4 ppg. of junior Perrion Callandret. As a team, Idaho is last in the conference in scoring offense at 69.6 ppg, but first in scoring defense at 65.8 ppg.
They’re fourth in the conference in free throw percentage, .703, eighth in field goal percentage, .443, and fourth in 3-point shooting percentage at .378. The Vandals are second in offensive rebounding at 37.6, but first in the conference in defensive rebounding at 29.6.
Things get even more intense for Eastern when they wrap up the regular season at home the following weekend with crucial games against fourth-place Idaho State (9-5, 14-12) and conference leader Weber State (12-2, 20-7). The Eagles are just a half game ahead of the Bengals, who host second-place Montana Thursday and concluded their home regular season Saturday against Montana State.
Idaho State is fifth in scoring offense, 75.1 points per game, led by the 19 ppg of Ethan Telfair (third in the BSC) and the 14.8 ppg of Geno Luzcando (15th). The Bengals are sixth in scoring defense (75.5), lead the conference in free throw percentage (.732), ninth in field goal percentage and fifth in 3-point percentage. They are seventh in offensive rebounding and 10th in defensive rebounding.
Eastern is the top scoring team in the Big Sky, averaging 83.8 ppg, led by McBroom, first in the conference at 21 ppg, with senior forward Venky Jois ninth at 16.9 ppg and Von Hofe 18th at 13.1 ppg. The Eagles are first in field goal percentage (.501), first in 3-point percentage (.393) and fourth in defensive rebounding (33.1).
Eastern is eighth in scoring defense (78.2), seventh in free throw percentage (.684) and 10th in offensive rebounding (33.6).
Jois enters Saturday’s game just 24 points behind the EWU career record of 1,741 held by Ron Cox (1974-77). The 6-foot-8, 230 pound senior has 1,717 points in his 116-game career to rank 13th in Big Sky Conference history, and his 969 rebounds are sixth.
Jois, who is ranked second in NCAA Division I in shooting accuracy (69.7 percent), has made 31-of-36 shots (86 percent) in his last four games. His 53 dunks this season has tied his own school record of 53 set as a junior.
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