MEN’S BASKETBALL
Bliznyuk seeks EWU scoring record
With Bogdan Bliznyuk achieving history with the next point he scores, the Eastern Washington University men’s basketball team hosts a pair of important Big Sky Conference games at Reese Court this week. The Eagles play North Dakota at 6:05 p.m. on Thursday (Jan. 25) before Northern Colorado visits Saturday (Jan. 27) for a 2:05 p.m. game.
Now with 1,802 career points, Bliznyuk is a single tally from the school record of 1,803 set by his former teammate, Venky Jois, from 2012-15. Bliznyuk scored 28 in an 81-76 road victory at Northern Arizona on Thursday (Jan. 18), then had 18 in a 66-62 overtime loss at Southern Utah two days later. Ron Cox had 1,741 points from 1974-77, and held the record for 39 years – about 14,300 days – until broken by Jois on March 3, 2016. Thus, Jois will have owned the record for just 693 days.
A 2014 graduate of Todd Beamer High School in Federal Way, Wash., Bliznyuk moved up one notch to 15th in the 55-year history of the Big Sky with his performance at SUU. He is now ahead of North Dakota’s Quinton Hooker with 1,787 points in four seasons from 2014-17, with Jois ranking No. 14 on the Big Sky list.
The NAU victory helped Eastern move into second place in the Big Sky standings, but the SUU loss dropped EWU into a four-way tie for fourth with Northern Colorado, Montana State and Idaho State. Montana leads the way at 7-0, while Idaho and Weber State are both 5-2.
The Eagles are now 9-11 on the season and 4-3 in the Big Sky, and have won six of their last nine games.
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WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
First place Eastern women hit the road
The Road to Reno leads the Eastern Washington University women’s basketball team to the Midwest for another week of Big Sky Conference play. The Eagles take their four-game win streak to North Dakota for a rematch against the Fighting Hawks on Thursday (Jan. 25) before taking on Northern Colorado on Saturday (Jan. 27).
This is the second time this season that EWU faces off against both programs. During the opening weekend of Big Sky play on Dec. 28, the Bears topped Eastern by a score of 70-65. The following Saturday, the Eagles bounced back and overcame an 11-point fourth quarter deficit to pick up a 74-70 victory over UND.
Since then, Eastern has won four of their last five games to move to 5-2 in conference play. The Eagles currently sit in a four-way tie for first place in the conference standings with Northern Colorado, Weber State and Montana.
The newly minted Big Sky Conference Player of the Week Delaney Hodgins is just 55 points away from breaking Eastern Washington’s all-time career scoring record, as she currently sits in second with 1,811 points. The record is held by her sister and former teammate, Hayley Hodgins, with 1,865 points. The Hodgins sisters own the distinction of being the only Eagles to ever eclipse the 1,800 points mark.
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Hodgins earns Big Sky award
After a pair of dominating performances this past week, EWU’s women’s basketball player Delaney Hodgins has been tabbed the Big Sky Conference Player of the Week, announced Jan. 23, for the second time in her career. She won the same honor on Monday from College Sports Madness, also for the second time in her career.
In Thursday’s 20-point victory over Northern Arizona, the senior scored a career-high 30 points on 11-for-28 shooting including 5-for-11 from 3-point range. She also pulled down eight boards and had three steals in addition to one assist.
She followed up Thursday’s performance with her fourth double-double of the season, adding 17 (7-for-14) points and tying her season-high 12 rebounds in the win over Southern Utah.
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