Sports Briefs

Bliznyuk earns player of week honor

The shooting numbers of 7-of-13 suited Bogdan Bliznyuk just fine in Eastern Washington University’s first two Big Sky Conference men’s basketball road wins of the 2015-16 season.

The sophomore forward earned College Sports Madness Big Sky Conference Player of the Week honors Monday (Feb. 8) for his stat-stuffing performances in wins over Northern Arizona (84-73) and Southern Utah (81-67), including 7-of-13 shooting in each game and a 7-of-13 performance at both the 3-point stripe and inside the arc for the weekend.

Continuing a recent tear starting on Jan. 16 when he had the first triple-double in school history, Bliznyuk averaged 24.0 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game last week. The sweep gave EWU a 7-4 league record and four-game winning streak

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EWU soccer signs six players for 2016

Eastern Washington University Women’s Soccer head coach Chad Bodnar has announced the signing of six high school seniors to National Letters of Intent Feb. 3.

Hadley Bezon (Maple Valley, Wash./Tahoma HS), Johanna Di Lulo (Boise, Idaho/Boise HS), Brooke Dunbar (Santa Rosa, Calif./Maria Carrillo HS), Jordan Lemieux (Bothell, Wash./Inglemoor HS), Saige Lyons (Puyallup, Wash./Puyallup HS) and Erin Zetterberg (Renton, Wash./Hazen HS) will join the Eagles following impressive prep careers. The group will graduate from high school this spring and come to Cheney in time for Eastern’s 2016 season.

“We want to continue to raise the expectations and level of play in our program, and this year’s recruiting class helps us do that,” Bodnar said. “This group will make us more balanced in all areas of the field while giving us added physicality, size and athleticism.”

EWU is coming off its best campaign in school history, finishing the 2015 season with program records for total victories (12), Big Sky Conference wins (6) among others.

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Jois shares ‘Player of Week’ honor

As he continues his assault on the Eastern Washington University men’s basketball career scoring record, Venky Jois has been selected as this week’s Big Sky Conference co-Player of the Week, sharing the honor with Idaho State’s Geno Luzcando.

The 6-foot-8 senior forward from Boronia, Australia, averaged 23.5 points and 10.5 rebounds while making 63 percent of his shots from the field (19-of-30) and 75 percent from the free throw line (9-of-12) in EWU’s home sweep versus Portland State (1/28/16) and Sacramento State (1/30/16). He also had three assists, three blocks and a steal.

He made 9-of-15 field goals and 5-of-7 free throws in EWU’s 112-83 romp over Portland State, and also finished with nine rebounds, two blocked shots and two steals. He had a double-double with 24 points and 12 rebounds in a 74-67 win over Sacramento State in which he made 10-of-15 from the field and 4-of-5 from the charity stripe.

 In his last six games the preseason Big Sky Conference MVP is averaging 20.5 points and 9.5 points on 53-of-79 shooting (67.1 percent) from the field. He has had five double-doubles in EWU’s last 10 games (six victories) heading into this week’s games at Northern Arizona (Feb. 4) and Southern Utah (Feb. 6).

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