Eagles win two straight

PORTLAND – The Eastern Washington men’s basketball team traveled to the Viking Pavilion and brought their overall record to 7-6 with the 63-58 win over Portland State on December 30.

The Eagles were missing a few players in the lineup but were able to still come away with the victory through a strong team effort.

Steele Venters led the Eagles in scoring with 20 points. Venters drained a trio of three pointers, and also had six rebounds, four blocks, and a steal.

Right behind him was forward Angelo Allegri who tallied 19 points with three triples as well. Allegri came in clutch during the end of the first half where he scored five straight points to give the Eagles a 30-27 lead at halftime.

Allegri struck again at the end of the game where he made four clutch free throws within the last minute to help Eastern hold on to the win.

Another Eagle had double digits in the scoring column, and Linton Acliese put up 15 points along with seven rebounds and a pair of assists.

Rylan Bergersen played a strong game as well with nine points, nine rebounds, five assists, a block, and two steals on the night.

Eastern Washington struggled a bit to find efficient shots, as they only shot 38 percent from the field, and that is one of the reasons the game was so close throughout. As a team the Eagles shot 11 of 29 from the floor in the first half and had the exact same shooting numbers in the second half.

22 of the Eagles points came from inside the paint, and due to dedicated rebounding, they put up 12 second chance points as well.

They did however shoot over 70 percent from the foul line, and this was an important factor late in the game when Allegri helped to seal the win.

The Vikings were able to keep the game close with consistent defense causing 13 turnovers, but in the end Eastern Washington held them off.

FLAGSTAFF – Kicking off the new year, the Eagles faced Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, and beat the Lumberjacks 78-65 on January 1.

Linton Acliese fronted the scoring effort for Eastern Washington with 30 points and added 11 rebounds for a double-double on the stat sheet.

Rylan Bergersen put up 17 and Steele Venters scored 14 to join Acliese in scoring double digits.

The first half of the game was a head-to-head battle with neither team pulling away, but the Eagles were able to put some scoring runs together in the second half to pull ahead and win the game.

The Eagles shot 56 percent from the field and put enough defensive pressure on the Lumberjacks to hold them to 36 percent efficiency.

The Eagles played very strong defensively down by the basket and help Northern Arizona to only 14 points in the paint while Eastern scored 46 down low in the key.

Strong rebounding efforts helped Eastern control the ball and earn 13 second chance points also.

The Eagles improve to 8-6 overall and 2-1 in the Big Sky Conference.

Matthew can be reached at [email protected]