Eastern Washington's Bogdan Bliznyuk and Kris Yanku of Northern Arizona battle for ball last Saturday at Reese Court. Bliznyuk recorded EWU's first-ever triple-double in the Eagles 96-73 win. .
The home cooking recipes the Eastern Washington men's basketball team served up last week received rave reviews.
The Eagles rolled to a pair of convincing Big Sky Conference victories at Reese Court, 106-80 over Southern Utah Jan. 14 and 96-73 Jan. 16 against Northern Arizona. That ran the Eagles' win streak to three after a Jan. 9 win over Idaho.
Eastern will hit the road for games tonight (Jan. 21) in Bozeman at Montana State and Saturday versus Montana in Missoula. Both games tip off at 6:05 p.m.
Hidden just under the surface in Eastern's win over the Lumberjacks, and perhaps overshadowed by the play of Venky Jois, was the history-making day of Bogdan Bliznyuk, who quietly delivered the first triple-double in EWU program history.
Bliznyuk , the 6-foot, 6-inch forward scored 11 points, hauled down 14 rebounds and dished out 10 assists for that oh-so-rare accomplishment for a program that has played in all but a handful of seasons since 1903-04.
"For Bogdan to do that today is something that he will hold for the rest of his life," EWU head coach Jim Hayford said. "I'm really proud and happy for him."
But it was Jois who made real noise as he delivered five thunderous jams on the way to a 21-point day where he added eight rebounds and a pair of blocked shots.
"Venky had a great weekend – he was just unstoppable inside," Hayford said. "He's playing with great power and confidence."
Eastern got off to a fast start and led for all but a few minutes around the midpoint of the first half. The Eagles took a 45-32 lead to the locker room and they poured it on in the game's final 15 minutes.
Northern Arizona was within 10 points with 16 minutes, 10 seconds left in the game, but over the next 10 minutes the Eagles went on a 29-13 run to open their biggest lead of the game at 80-54 with 6:20 to play.
Graduate transfer Austin McBroom led the surge, scoring 15 of his 19 points in the second half. He hit 5 of 10, 3-point attempts.
Sir Washington made all five of his shots and 3 of 4 free throws to finish with 13 points.
Junior Julian Harrell, just back in the lineup for the past three games, made 4-of-6 shots to finish with 11 points.
Eastern's balanced scoring attack, with five players in double figures, saw them score at a 55 percent clip - they had a 57 percent average in the three-game homestand.
And as might be expected by the performances of Bliznyuk and Jois, the Eagles dominated the boards. They had a huge 43-21 edge in rebounding versus the Lumberjacks.
McBroom scored 25 points in just 27 minutes on the floor. Jois had yet another memorable outing Thursday delivering six jams on the way to a 24-point, 12-rebound effort for his fourth double-double of the season. Harrell added 15 on a night when the Eagles shot a torrid 61 percent from the field and led 49-30 at halftime.
"We're very grateful for a very solid homestand these three games," Hayford said. "We played really well and found our balance and rhythm as a team these last two weeks."
Eastern's games against the Montana schools this season are a rarity in that the teams play only once - in Montana. Since Eastern became a member of the Big Sky Conference in the 1987-88 season, the Eagles have always played the Bobcats and Grizzlies in Cheney. But because of the new 12-team schedule format adopted last year, this is the rare year where the Eagles won't face their two long-time rivals at Reese Court.
The teams rotate back into the schedule at Reese in 2016-17.
Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.
Reader Comments(0)