Indiana victory just might top them all

Arguably, Eastern Washington's 88-86 men's basketball victory over Indiana University, Nov. 24 at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, was one of the program's high points.

The Eagles went on the road and toppled both the team and mystique of one of the most storied programs in college basketball where five national championship banners hang in the Hoosiers' gym.

In the final 1 minute, 36 seconds of the game the Eagles started the run of their young lifetimes, outscoring the Hoosiers 13-5. They built an 88-83 lead, and then held both their collective breath, and composure, for the victory.

There have been numerous perspectives provided of the feat, but the best eyewitness to this history came from the man who has seen many a magic moment in Eastern athletics over the past nearly quarter century, broadcaster Larry Weir.

"As far as non conference wins I would probably put it No. 1," Weir said, when asked to rank it among the many he's seen doing play-by-play for both Eastern basketball and football since the late 1980s during Eastern's time as an NCAA Division I school.

"The only other game that would probably be up there that you could argue against it, the 2002-03 team went to (the University of) Washington and won (62-58)," Weir said.

Television, Weir said, elevated the Indiana game.

"The coaches said their phones just went nuts with not only friends, relatives and what not, but with recruits calling because they had seen it and congratulated them," Weir said.

And while the trio of Drew Brandon, with a career high 27 points, Tyler Harvey's usual night at the office with 25 and Venky Jois's 20 points - 72 of Eastern's total of 88 - commanded the box score, Weir pointed to another vital contributor who helped make it happen.

Spokane's Parker Kelly had taken just one shot all night, likely due to his nursing a broken nose suffered in the first half.

But with 36 seconds remaining, Kelly connected on a 3-point basket that gave Eastern an 82-78 lead. His pair of free throws added to a 9-0 Eagle run, increasing the lead to 84-78.

"Here with 20 or 30 seconds left to play he takes the biggest shot of the game," Weir said. "That takes a strong-minded guy, and then he goes up and hits big free throws after that."

Kelly's resolve exemplifies an underlying "toughness," this Eastern team has that Weir said might not be all that evident at first glance.

"There's a lot of tough guys on this team, some of them don't look like they're tough guys but they are tough guys," Weir said.

Weir reflected on Eastern's 2003-04 team that included Marc Axton, Alvin Snow, Brendon Merritt and Matt Nelson. That was Eastern's last Big Sky championship team, the first - and the only to date - NCAA qualifier.

"All those guys were tough," Weir said.

During head coach Jim Hayford's time at Eastern where he's just into season four, he's exposed his teams to playing in some of the most notable basketball gyms in America. Last Christmas there was a trip to Seton Hall and the University of Connecticut. Sure they were both losses, but the young men left with memories to last a lifetime.

Playing at 17,472-seat Assembly Hall in front of 11,636 fans never seemed to phase Eastern, Weir said.

"The guys were really confident going into that building; the coaches were exceptionally confident going into that game," Weir said. "Coach Hayford told me, 'We're going to score enough points to win, It's can we stop them enough?"

Indiana came into the game shooting over 50 percent from the field and 46 from 3-point range. Eastern held them to 47.5 percent overall and just under 40 from long range.

And with Eastern, it's hard to take everything away, Weir said.

"You want to take away the 3-point shot, alright, they've got guys that can drive it and Venky (Jois) can score inside, so they took away the 3," Weir explained.

Eastern figured out what they could and couldn't do. "They found something that worked and Indiana just couldn't stop them the second half," Weir said.

Sure, the Hoosiers the Eagles picked off were not the Bobby Knight-coached variety, but they certainly had more McDonald's high school All-American's than did the visitors from "Chaney," as the ESPNews crew pronounced Eastern's home town.

"I blame that on the former Vice President (Dick Cheney)," Weir said.

Was this as big as Eastern's football win at Oregon State to open the 2013 season?

"You know it's interesting to try to contrast the two," Weir said. "The one thing that might give football the edge is playing against a team with more scholarships."

Coupled with follow-up victories 81-60 against Northern Kentucky Nov. 26 and 104-87 against Eastern Oregon Nov. 30, Eastern at 6-1 is off to its best start in nearly 40 years.

"I'm excited, it could be a good year," Weir said.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.