Previewing today’s EWU semifinal game
The Coaches: Eastern Washington’s Jim Hayford is 64-62 in his fourth season. Hayford is 2-1 in the Big Sky Championship. He has the Eagles in the semifinals for the first time since 2012. Hayford has an overall coaching record of 318-146 …Sacramento State’s Brian Katz is 76-127 in his seventh season with the Hornets. Katz is 1-1 in the Big Sky Championship. He has the Hornets in the Big Sky semifinals for the first time since 2006 and just the third time in school history. Katz has an overall collegiate coaching record of 511-311…Katz and Hayford were named Co-Big Sky Coach of the Year.
Up Next: The winner will advance to the Big Sky Championship game on Saturday night at 7 p.m. Mountain. The winner will play the winner of the Montana/Northern Arizona semifinal.
How to watch: The game will be video streamed on Watch Big Sky. It can be accessed through www.watchbigsky.com or on the Watch Big Sky App. It is free of charge. Jay Sanderson and Tanoka Beard will call Friday’s game.
Season Series: The teams split regular-season meetings. Sacramento State beat Eastern Washington 90-77 on Jan. 17 in Sacramento. Mikh McKinney scored 14 points with 12 assists and six steals. Cody Demps scored 22 points with five assists. Sacramento State had 25 assists on 31 field goals, and shot .633 percent from the field. The Hornets made 16-of-22 field goals in the second half and broke away from a 41-41 halftime tie. Tyler Harvey led EWU with 21 points. Freshman Bogdan Bliznyuk scored 19 points with 10 rebounds. Junior forward Venky Jois did not play because of an ankle injury…EWU beat the Hornets 64-61 on Feb. 12 in Cheney. Ognjen Miljkovic scored a team-high 16 points. Parker Kelly added 15. Tyler Harvey did not play because of a thigh contusion. McKinney scored 21 points with four assists. Dylan Garrity added 10 points. Sacramento State shot .407 percent from the field.
Notes: Both teams feature two 1,000-point scorers. EWU’s Tyler Harvey has 1,510 career points. Venky Jois has 1,230…Sacramento State’s Mikh McKinney has 1,410 and Dylan Garrity has 1,353…Garrity ranks sixth in Big Sky history with 523 assists…EWU’s Tyler Harvey enters the game with 120 3-pointers this season, just four shy of tying the single-season Big Sky record. Harvey has 252 career 3-pointers, which ranks sixth in Big Sky history. He needs six to tie former Weber State star Scott Bamforth for fifth all-time…Harvey tied the Big Sky single-game tournament record with 42 points in the quarterfinal win over Idaho. His eight 3-pointers were the second-most in a tournament game…Harvey is the national leader in scoring (23.6 ppg) and 3-point field goals per game (4.1)…McKinney was named the Big Sky regular-season MVP…Bogdan Bliznyuk of EWU won Freshman of the Year…EWU leads the Big Sky with an average of 80.0 points per game…Sacramento State is third in scoring defense (67.2 pg)…Sacramento State shoots a league-best .486 from the floor. EWU is second at .478.
