Eastern men split with ISU, lose top seed

CHENEY — If Eastern Washington didn’t have to do things the hard way it just might not be the same.

So that might be the approach the Eagles take as they pursue the Big Sky Conference men’s basketball tournament this week in Boise. No. 2 seed Eastern will tip off Thursday at 4 p.m. at Idaho Central Arena vs. the winner of the game featuring No. 7 Portland State (9-12, 6-8) and No. 10 Northern Arizona (5-15, 4-10).

It could have been an easier road, perhaps, back to their first NCAA Tournament since 2015 had the Eagles tended to business last week hosting Idaho State at Reese Court? A sweep meant repeating as conference champions, but Eastern split with the Bengals giving the No. 1 slot to Southern Utah.

On March 3 the Eagles led 63-56 with 3 minutes, 29 seconds to play, but back-to-back 3-pointers by the Bengals helped them score the final 12 points of the game in a 68-63 victory that snapped a nine-game Eagle win streak.

Eastern salvaged the split and the No. 2 seed by making a 47-32 halftime lead hold up for a 75-62 win March 5, holding the Bengals to just 28 second-half points. In order to win a second consecutive conference crown Portland State had to win at home against Southern Utah and that did not occur.

In the opener, Eastern, which had made 50 percent of its shots for most of the game, missed its last five field goal attempts.

Friday was a fitting conclusion to playing at Reese Court for two departing seniors, Jacob Davison and Jack Perry, who not only earned Senior Day starts but were impactful as well. Davison, the preseason MVP of the league, finished with 18 and Perry had 11.

“Now teams have to worry about Jacob Davison again, EWU head coach Shantay Legans said. Davison had lost his starting role following and Eagle loss at Northern Colorado in January.

A pair of sophomores, Tyler Robertson (13 points), Michael Meadows (11) and junior Tanner Groves (10) were other Eagles in double figures.

Davison and Perry were the sparks in an early 11-0 run that propelled Eastern to its big first-half lead. In contrast to Wednesday’s finish, the Eagles were at one point 12-of-15 from the field Friday — an 80% shooting clip.

Davison has scored 1,348 and moved to 10th in school history while Perry’s 148 3-pointers to rank 11th all-time and his career 41.7 percent accuracy land him 10th.

In the second half, Eastern took its biggest lead of the night at 55-32 with 17:18 on a basket by Davison. They led by 18 with 7:03 left before ISU’s eight unanswered points to cut the lead to 10. But Eastern used a 5-0 run in the last 3:05 to put the game away.

Tanner Groves led a trio of Eagles in double figures with 19 points on Wednesday, but Eastern was held to 26 points in the second half and out rebounded 21-9 after intermission. Meadows scored 14 and Kim Aiken Jr. 13.

“We controlled our destiny, and now we don’t,” Legans said.

Eastern finishes the regular season 12-3 in conference and 13-7 overall while Idaho State is 8-6 in the Big Sky Conference and 13-10 overall in the unbalanced COVID-19 affected schedule.

Paul Delaney is a retired former Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at pauldelaney53@comcast.net.